Beautifying Chicago’s street craters: Local artist turning potholes into works of art

CHICAGO — It’s that time of year when two things begin popping out of the ground in Chicago: early spring buds and potholes.

There are lots of crews out to help fill the gaps, but only one guy is turning the eyesores into works of art.

Every artist has their favorite medium, but Jim Bachor’s falls more on the unusual side — the street.

For Bachor, it was a trip to Europe where he found his inspiration.

“Over there, you trip over stuff that’s 2,000 years old,” he said. “And it was mosaic that really struck me.”

He got home and started messing around pushing marble and opaque Italian glass into clay.

His work contained a healthy dose of fun in candy wrappers, toilet paper, and potato chips, all preserved in sparkling Italian glass.

“I like the idea of somebody looking at a piece a couple hundred years from now that has some dry humor to it,” he said.

And that’s when it hit him: What better place to display his work than smack dab in the middle of one of the city’s biggest eyesores, the infamous Chicago potholes?

“Everybody hates potholes. Everyone knowingly hates potholes,” he said.

So he started filling them, and before he knew it, Bachor had beautified 110 of Chicago’s street craters.

And while Chicago’s streets don’t afford his pothole art the longevity of those European mosaics, it did create a crazy following.

This Spring, Bachor opened his own gallery along Lawrence Avenue.

“I’m so appreciative,” he said. “I don’t take it for granted.”

He sells prints of his famous pothole art, a book chronicling his journey and a studio to continue piecing together his next masterpiece, knowing there’s potential for beauty and a laugh in even the most broken stretches of the road.

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