As a lifelong Chicagoan, my goal as an artist is simply to bring beauty to this city and anywhere else the Heavenly Father has blessed me to touch. I believe art is a catalyst for breaking down barriers.  Combining positive communication with bright, bold colors and portraits can spark uncomfortable but necessary conversations to push not only minds, but also hearts and souls into explore a better place, a place where all can peacefully co-exist.

In 1992, my football career ended. I had hoped to be playing in college, but my coach at Brother Rice was straight with me about my football future, and encouraged me instead to pursue art. He asked me to create a logo for him, and my education at the American Academy of Art soon followed. I met a number of graffiti artists, and spent several years learning and perfecting my art on the streets. After 2010, my focus changed: it became less important to get my name on the wall and more important to figure out how I could use my art to help our communities thrive. It dawned on me that the city of Chicago wasn’t doing much to actively bring art to the South Side. That’s when I decided it was time to bring art to Englewood where I grew up.

Paint the City – “VOTE” by Bryant L Jones

I had been painting “board ups,” or abandoned buildings that have been boarded up, on the South Side of the city to prevent break-ins, and bring light to the area for the Paint the City Project for some time. My first Paint the City mural, after the 2020 protests, was for the Mojo Spa in Wicker Park in early June after it was looted. Organizer, Missy Perkins, aka “The Queen” as I call her, was contacted by the Loop Alliance to improve the face of the city after the high-end stores on Michigan Avenue were looted and damaged. She contacted me because she knows her roster of artists, and knew I would rock it. She let me pick the location I wanted because she’s very aware of who would do something special in the prime locations. My “VOTE” piece created controversy because during the creation of it, someone stopped in the middle of Wacker Drive and started yelling, “We’re all doomed. Doesn’t matter—Democrat or Republican. It’s all been planned out.” Another woman stopped and yelled back, “Let him paint!” The police showed up. You know you’re making a difference when people start talking about your work like that. Art is supposed to spark a fire in people. To make you feel something. I knew this piece was doing what I had intended. The idea for the piece came from thinking about the names on the board—MLK, JFK, Malcolm X—I wanted to uphold their legacy and create a character stomping out racism by holding up the word “Vote.” I painted the word “racism” in green because it’s rooted in the earth of this country; the only way to uproot it is to be aware, to vote, to create art and music, to read, talk, and dance! It’s the power of the VOTE that will crush racism. Our artist’s tools in the mural are helping to crush racism too. We have to utilize every tool in the book to stop the deeply embedded racism because we’ve all been “Willie Lynch-ed” in the mind. For those unfamiliar with how this saying came about, there was a wealthy, white, slave owner who taught people how to control slaves…by turning them against one another, and these tricks and tactics have worked over time. We all need to be aware that these ideals have been ingrained in all of us.

Wall of Greatness by Bryant L. Jones

In 2014, I asked the owners of the Quick Stop convenient store at the corner of 71^st and Western Avenue in Englewood if I could remove a wall of graffiti, and paint positive pictures to show the community we could be great. Owners, Mike and Charlie, both from Arab countries, had been in our community for 30 years, and understood the need to improve the image of the community and inspire through art.

On the front of the building, on the 71^st Street side, I painted Emmett Till and Breonna Taylor to show the history, and to honor them both and pay respect; to show that all life is precious. The fist resting on books was done in 2015 to show that reading gives power. I was going to go back and add more detail to that element, but when the message is there nothing else needs to be done. I always go back to that wall because it’s the melting pot corner of Englewood: Black, white, LatinX, all pass by. It’s a very powerful corner, and I wanted the message to be very visible to people of all races.

During the summer of 2020 the Quick Stop was burned down, robbed, and looted by neighbors. The existing image of Muhammed Ali, Bruce Lee, Kobe Bryant and his daughter along with seven birds for others lost in that tragedy, Serena Williams, along with gymnast, Olympic hopeful and son of local Unisex Salon owner, Winston Matthew, remained intact. Matthew’s Unisex Salon is in that complex too, and by including his son it showed that someone from our neighborhood could achieve that level of excellence and greatness. Matthew’s Salon was not touched during the rioting because the neighborhood respected him. The restaurant next door, Baba’s, was left untouched because it’s a food source. The community has calmed down, realizing that destroying the businesses in the area is counterproductive. Recently, Muhammed Ali’s wife visited Chicago and saw the mural, and was blown away by it. She contacted our alderman, who reached out not realizing that the art had been created by someone in the neighborhood. Mrs. Ali asked that it never be painted over. Art helps people feel better—I’m going to keep doing it. I’d like to paint murals 360 degrees around the entire building.

In Berwyn: Black Lives Matter by Bryant L. Jones

For the Black Lives Matter mural located in Berwyn, IL, I was commissioned by the Mayor’s Office in September, 2020, along with eleven other Black and LatinX artists, to create a piece raising awareness of the social unrest across the city. My contribution was the “E” in Matter, and I chose to include Breonna Tayler, Laquan McDonald, and Emmett Till because their faces should be shown as black lives that mattered, and that still matter today.

Last year, I was asked by Englewood organizations—Chicago Ability, Stay L.I.T. (a community organization that mentors young women and teens in how to find employment), and the Children’s Home & Aid—to spend six weeks teaching 40 kids, ages 14-17, how to create murals. We spent three weeks in a hot classroom talking about art, painting, and murals, but I knew we had to get out into the community and paint. We stressed professional dress and behavior, and exposed young people to what can be done with art, teamwork, and collaboration. We need the same artistic development on the South and East sides of the city that we see in Maggie Daley park, and on Michigan Avenue. We need spaces where kids can be kids. I’ve taken kids from my neighborhood to these spaces on the North side. These were kids who were talking about guns and drugs, and were more concerned about being cool. When we were at the Maggie Daley park, I heard joy in their voices. They were kids again.

The medium I prefer is spray paint—it’s faster than painting with a brush, it dries faster, and it’s bolder. I will do commissioned paintings, though I prefer to do public art because it has the ability to raise awareness of racism, and inspire people and positive change on the South Side of Chicago. I want to encourage the beauty of art like there is on the North Side of Chicago.

You can find Bryant’s work on Instagram @gneeink45.

Bryant L. Jones was born in 1974, and resides in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. He has achieved the highest form of spray can art mastery. Students, now world renown artist in their own right, hire him to assist in the creation of their own murals because of their scale.

Bold, incredible, exhilarating, bright and colorful are words that are used to describe his work. Using the spray can as a football, Jones passes on positive vibes through color, powerful portraits and positive collaborative efforts to communicate the need for social and community development! Incorporating past subject matter with a modern-day twist, creating new and inspiring images is what Jones does with passion.

He is a child of God who has been through the fire as a street vandal, and has come full circle growing into a respected mentor and true artistic visionary for the city of Chicago, especially the South Side in the crusade to Elevate Englewood with Art. He looks for social spaces to provide his canvas so that viewers can appreciate his work in all forms across the city. Find Jones @gneeink45 on Instagram.