Front page of The Chicago Tribune today.
I started Terrible Portraits just over 3 months ago and I simply could have never fathomed any of this.
So deeply grateful for those in my life who’ve supported me along the way.
Cheers, to many more Terrible Portraits drawn.
📸: @lxromero for ‘Welcome to the Show’ w/ @bishpleaze
For $5 dollars and 5 minutes of your time, Jacob Ryan Reno of Logan Square will hand you a 9x5 monstrosity, but the experience will leave you smiling.
Reno is the person behind Terrible Portraits, a one-man art stand that delivers crude sketches of customers for a fiver. He sets up his card table most Sundays at the Logan Square Farmers Market and along the 606 trail.
While he’s drawn almost 500 portraits, the 26-year-old California native is not a classically trained artist. In fact, the idea began as a party joke, he told Block Club.
“I was at a house party in college and a friend saw some pen and paper and suggested drawing each other,” Reno said. “We put five minutes on the clock and she turned hers around and it was pretty good. I turned mine around and she was visibly upset. So I thought, ‘Well, I’m a terrible artist. And I have no intention to get better.'”
The joke turned into a weekly occurrence for Reno when he quit his nine-to-five job that he said didn’t align with his values. A week later, he stumbled upon photos from the party and decided to try out drawing as a performance art.
“I am absolutely bewildered by the reception,” he said. “I’m really astounded by it.”
Reno DJs and works at a restaurant most days, but he said he’s spent most of his time on Terrible Portraits since beginning the project in May. His favorite part of the job is learning more about his neighbors, he said. He’s discovered where to eat, where to drink and where people hang out by talking with his subjects.
Reno said he was nervous about the reception at first, especially given people’s understanding of caricature.
“The last thing I want is to make someone self-conscious. and there was this young kid the first or second week I started drawing who came up to me,” Reno said. “I made sure to tell him that this would be a truly terrible portrait because he was so nervous. But when I turned the portrait around and handed it to him he just burst out laughing, and we laughed together for two or three minutes.”
✍️ Full story by by Eileen O'Gorman in our link in bio.
Still reeling from last evening. An absolute honor to be invited by @mauriziocattelan curator of this year’s @rensoc benefit.
Cattelan orchestrated a Silent Party at the @chicagoathletichotel in which all participants could only communicate via notebook for the first 2 hours of the event.
It was especially an honor to custom make @mauriziocattelan outfit for the evening.
Thank you so much for having me @rensoc@mauriziocattelan
