THE SPOT | NOVEMBER 2007 | BACK TO CURRENTPLAYING THE CANVAS
Chicago painter Chadwick Anderson paints to the beat of someone else's drumby Cory RobertsonSome artists might find flashing lights and booming music daunting to the artistic process -- and some might want to hide away in a studio until their piece is finished.Chadwick Anderson could not be more different. A self-made "live painter," Anderson puts his entire artistic process -- from start to finish -- out in the open. He paints to music, the way a dancer grooves or a musician plays an instrument -- body moving in time with the beat, pouring every bit of energy into the expression of a fleeting moment in time."My whole philosophy is I want to bring it to the people," says Anderson, which might explain why he's painted onstage with some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Lady Sovereign and Mos Def. Most remarkable is the fact that Anderson doesn't seem like an anomaly onstage, with a gun holster of paintbrushes in tow, a black fedora and a sense of rhythm to rival that of a percussionist, Anderson's onstage creations -- bold, maze-like designs in bright and dark colors -- seem organic to the musical performance at hand, as does his presence onstage.Surprisingly, Anderson's training didn't begin in art school, but as a doorman at the Funky Buddha Lounge. "I would always store, like, 10 sheets of paper underneath the guest list," he says. "I would always be drawing." But Anderson was still just doodling at this point."One day my hand would kind of follow the music," he says, identifying the turning point in his artistic development. This realization inspired him to expand his artistic tendencies into a new medium and a more exposed process: "I was like, 'I want to paint to music,'" he says. "'I want to be this guy who shows up to a club and paints.'"It wasn't long before Funky Buddha owner Mark Klemen provided Anderson with his first canvas and allowed him to set up his paints inside the club. Patrons were bewildered at first, but as Anderson says, as soon as he put something down on canvas, they understood the value of what he was doing. In response to their inquiries as to his artistic vision or style, Anderson would reply simply: "It's something cool." Hence the birth of his signature acronym, COOL, which stands for Creative Observations On Life."This is the COOL Gallery right here," Anderson says, motioning to the walls around him as he sits in his native environment, the Funky Buddha Lounge -- now home to an abundance of his paintings, covering the tables, mounted on the walls and even adorning the women's bathroom. His paintings are bold and abstract, thick with paint and deep with color, though they sometimes include bits of realism -- an exquisitely rendered portrait of Miles Davis, for example, floats inside one collage-like painting.Anderson has been painting for just a few years now, but he's already well established in Chicago, having appeared not only with national acts but also with local musicians, including the Cool Kids, Chicago Afrobeat Project and the Grant Park Orchestra. Often, Anderson tours alongside such musicians; he recently traveled the East Coast with Chicago Afrobeat and is a verified member of Lady Sov's group of onstage performers for her North American shows.But Anderson's home is here in Chicago, a fact proven by his decision to open a gallery at 732 W. Grand, just steps away from where it all began for him at the Buddha. The space will feature painted jeans, purses and jackets, as well as more traditional artwork, including sculptures made by Anderson's business partner, Robert Consentino.Anderson's success is the result of his will to drop everything else in order to paint, and the rapidity of his artistic development has amazed even him: "I'm just kind of like the co-pilot," he says, "like this machine has its own drive and I'm just kind of like sitting next to it and seeing what happens, with a big open heart and big open eyes and hopefully a big bottle of champagne -- cause at the end of the day, it's a party."
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