Today we’d like to introduce you to Gene Pellegrene.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Gene. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Artist Painters was formed 10 years ago. Painting houses is a past time fill-in of a lot people in the creative fields. I felt that living in a large city like Chicago, I could find very qualified artists that were also very proficient house painters. They have to be qualified in both areas or the concept doesn’t work.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I struggle with finding the right moments to grow the business while keeping up with current projects. Since I’m a one-man show of customer service, quotes, budgeting, marketing, advertising and managing the crew/ projects, it’s hard for me to let go of some of those hats in our best interests in expanding. It’s also difficult to find active creative people that are experienced with house painting. For the concept to work properly, they have to be very good house painters as well as relevant artists in their communities.
Artist Painters – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The concept behind Artist Painters was to form a socially conscience company, utilizing artists from all creative fields to execute high quality interior/exterior painting projects for their clients. This painting company functions as a way to financially support the participating artists, pay them a generous wage, work in an ethical environment and raise art awareness in the community one project at a time. The artists involved are all experienced house painters, utilizing the best possible products and methods of application. Artist Painters embraces the philosophy of the “local living economy” by taking an ethical and socially responsible approach to business and its artists. The goal is to serve the common good in the community, rather than simply focus on increasing profits. I consider Artist Painters a complicated art piece. This aspect of the company is a surprise for most. My goal is to create art objects on a client by client basis that alters what they think art is. My entire body of work as an artist has culminated to this point. Being welcomed into someone’s home, being in their personal environment and developing a relationship is the basis for creating a very personal art object that is formed of my experiences and the strong influence of the client relationship. As an artist I feel very lucky to be creating influential pieces of art that have the ability to show clients how important, how powerful art is. These pieces are free to the clients, where the financial aspect is satisfied by the painting company. Is an art piece that’s made from the purest of intentions, no money involved, no ego, no interference that I might be prone to. It’s a slow process but in my experience yields a greater influence and deeper meaning to everyone involved and its impact on art. The process is difficult and doesn’t occur with every painting project but rather with occurring sometime on the arc of the relationship with the client.
We completed four murals and faux finishing for Tuco and Blondie Restaurant in Lakeview. Design concepts by Grip/Space Architects and Planners. The exterior mural (“snake”) was selected as Chicago’s most “Instagramable Wall” and would be part of a national television commercial for a major retailer. I’m proud of the work we did there and shows the attention a well-designed and executed mural can provide for a business.
We completed a large exterior mural project for Sterling Bay and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the Chicago Architectural Biannual located at a pop-up space in the West Loop. This project involved painting the entire building matte black and painting various graphics on the three elevations of the building.
We love completing murals and high profile graphics for clients but the bulk of our projects lies in residential house painting, whether it be nurseries, home interiors, exterior projects. It’s really completing those projects that provide us a strong foundation with our clients. I also see a future of helping other business using murals to push their branding into the community consciousness.
The concept sets us apart from other painting companies and the company sets itself apart from other pieces of art. It is a conceptual art piece, disguised as a top painting company.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think the murals would be an easy answer but really it’s the art pieces from a few of the projects that make me realize all this hard work and my life as an artist come together to make some really great pieces. Creating a client’s home as a dollhouse/model of their home was one of the pieces I liked best. It was a complete surprise to them and I really felt it shifted their views a bit to how important art is. I’m really only interested in making art that has that power, while supporting other artists with a living wage completes the mission.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2535 W. Logan Blvd., Chicago, IL 60647
- Website: www,artistpainterschicago.com
- Phone: 773-240-4077
- Email: artistpainters@hotmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/artist_painters_llc/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/artist.painters/
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/artist-painters-llc-chicago
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