Twenty years ago I had my first solo show of my art (photographs) in the same space. Back then it was a place called Café Boost. $2.50 bottomless cup of coffee. Good pastries, sandwiches, and salads, including a salad pregnant women would eat to induce labor. True.
I’d sit there at Café Boost all afternoon drinking coffee and sketching, reading, writing. I met other artists there and then got to know the owners. They were also artists and musicians. I asked if I could show my work in the café and they said yes which led to my first public solo art show in Chicago. It was even a recommended show listing in the arts section of the Chicago Reader (see other photos in this post). I went on to show my work there several other times before they closed in 2005. One of those artists I knew from drinking bottomless cups of coffee everyday at Boost, introduced me to Richard Lange, the director of Friends of the Arts (FOTA) - a non-profit arts organization helping emerging artists show their work. Richard and FOTA helped me kick start showing my art publicly in Chicago. Within a couple years I was curating monthly art shows at Café Boost on behalf of FOTA and I also showed my work around town in other places via FOTA’s network, including the Cornelia Arts Building, where I’ve had my studio space since 2006.
