Hebru Brantley, the 2013 Artist in Residence for Chicago Ideas Week (CIW),said he learned how to hustle and work hard growing up on the streets of Chicago’s South Side. One look around his loft studio at 2150 S. Canalport Ave., and you’ll be surrounded by works showing the optimism of youth in the face of multiple barriers.

The Bronzeville native is in the middle of creating “The Watch,” an installation of 20 sculptures representing the troubles and triumphs CIW YOU(th) students face in the Chicago neighborhoods they call home. It will be unveiled during CIW and exhibited at  CIW partner NBC Chicago’s plaza.

“This is my first time being involved with CIW, and I feel rejuvenated,” Brantley said. “It has sort of put a battery in my back, and I really want to go the extra step because I feel my efforts will be matched.”

CIW sat down with 31-year-old Brantley at his studio—where paintings of vibrant characters scattered nearly every inch of the walls and floor—and talked about the creative process behind taking the stories of a generation and turning them into visual art.

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I was excited to be selected for the program. I was unfamiliar, honestly, with CIW prior. Once selected, I read up and learned about what it is, and after getting to meet a lot of the people involved who are putting this on, I agree it’s much needed. It’s a really great thing to be involved in. The people that are involved are very genuine—it’s not just being a part of something for the sake of it. Things can honestly spark from these talks and conversations by pulling people from all different walks of life together and allowing them to be in the same space at the same time.

My work as an artist started with an affinity for graffiti and matured into one that obviously is more narrative-based and more into high-art—telling stories, etc. I felt that I had hit the ceiling with graffiti. So now, a lot of what I do revolves around certain characters that I’ve created to push certain narratives, whatever that may be. If it’s something in the moment that’s happening within the news or something closer to home that’s either affected me or something I’ve picked up in conversation, the goal is to create these narratives. It’s muscle memory, it’s me creating constantly and evolving as an artist and as a person.

I think that with some of these kids, it’s amazing that any of them make it out because they’re given so little opportunity to succeed and to become anything. Looking at some of these kids and the motivation—that drive that’s within them—to still be so young and to come from near squalor and be destitute and stuck in these areas where there’s constant crime and it’s bleak. It’s definitely inspirational and it saddens my heart as well. These are kids that have plans and they have goals and aspirations. It’s inspiring to see that hope isn’t lost as far as the future of our city goes.

How will you be translating their stories into sculptures?

With me creating 20 sculptures of both boys and girls of my characters “Flyboy” and “Little Momma,” it’s a very easy and digestible way to sort of call attention to a larger problem…it’s what these kids face with violence, with poverty, basically being given very little opportunity. I won’t be using a child’s name directly—but these kids represent different areas within Chicago. It’s gotten to a point where now you don’t hear much about these areas because it’s the same song everyday. And when it’s the same song, it’s no longer newsworthy. So it’s calling attention to that, it’s calling attention to say that these problems, however old, still exist.

What I’ve taken from the conversation with these kids are certain blurbs and certain quotes that struck a chord with me as far as how they feel, what they feel is right and wrong and how they feel about their situation or their reality at the time.

It’s already coming together. This was a huge task, a huge undertaking in such a short time to create four variations of sculpture and to cast a total of 20 with a shoestring budget and no time. It’s a lot. It’s full speed head—I’ve got to take the bull by the horns and ride.

I have two sculptures completed and the casting process will take place this week. And then there’s the extremely labor-intensive part of sanding, painting and adding certain distinguishable characteristics to the sculptures to make each one of them unique. So they may have come from the same mold—but the goal and the vision is to embody these kids. Though they might come from the same neighborhood, though they are of African-American or Latin descent, they still are different in their own way, so I wanted to translate that with the work as well.

You’ll also be hosting a YOU(th) Lab about your creative process. Tell us more.

With the CIW YOU(th) Lab, the main goal is just to engage [the students]. I take them on sort of a process of how I work and then, hopefully, be able to sort of create something and get them into the creative process. It’s a short period of time in which to do that, but the goal is to come up with a product and end result. I don’t want to give too much away.

It’s broad.  I’ll be talking from that standpoint of being a self-made artist, one that hasn’t gone through the proper protocol in order to get to a certain point as an artist—to go through school or obtain a master’s degree. I’m a very hard worker, and I demand a lot from those that I work with because I’m going to give them just as much. I want to express that to these kids because I feel like there’s a new way and there’s a new dynamic within this generation, and even within my generation, where you don’t want to be in a cubbyhole and stuck into a 9-to-5 sort of stigma that exists around it.

But a lot of these kids don’t have any sort of the idea about the way in which to make that happen. A lot of times, the only way out of the hood is you sell crack or you better have a wicked jump-shot. Those are the only options they see and that they face. There’s plenty of other options, but those are the ones that are immediate and that they see everyday. I’m just trying to show the other side, where it’s not just that. It’s being creative and allowing for that creative space, where you can make money and exist in. Hopefully I can spark creative juices in them.

Honestly, all of it. Just the entire experience is going to be phenomenal. From the Talks themselves to the Labs, just seeing what the reaction is to the work, that’s always important to me—good, bad or otherwise. My goal is to engage and get a reaction. I don’t think there’s one thing that overshadows the other. I’m looking forward to the entire process.

Stay tuned to The Ideasphere for updates on Brantley’s installation and the big reveal during the start of CIW 2013 in October! Want to get involved? Just shoot us an e-mail at info@chicagoideas.com. You can also check out more of his work here.

*Editor’s note: This interview has been edited down from its original size.*

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Written by: Sophia Coleman

Art photography by: Sophia Coleman