Description

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty



On a Chicago Street Corner

acrylic paint on canvas board

5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)

201907065

© copyright Mike Kraus



On this plots of land, the long grass of the Illinois prairie gave way to squalid tenements of Irish immigrants in the 1840s. They escaped famine and oppression in their homeland to find abuse, poverty, and the backbreaking labor of digging canals, building roads, and constructing the railroads. The neighborhood had frequent Cholera outbreaks because of the constant flooding.



Seeking religious and political freedoms from the Austrians, Czech immigrants moved to this muddy Chicago neighborhood. They opened a restaurant called "At the City of Plzeň", which inspired the Pilsen neighborhood's name. When banks refused to loan them money to build homes, they formed their own credit unions to finance the neo-Bohemian Baroque architecture that is treasured today.



In the 1950, the construction of the Stevenson Expressway forced Mexican immigrants from their homes to the Hull House Neighborhood. Soon after, they were forced from their homes again to make room for the University of Illinois Chicago campus. When the Latino community began to appear in Pilsen, they fought discrimination to have a place to live, to be members of churches, to open shops, and to have their children receive decent educations. So, when another Urban Renewal plan for Pilsen was discovered, they fought back to save the neighborhood they worked so hard to create.



These streets bear the scars of injustice and the hope for opportunity for all. Overcoming our prejudice to the cause of freedom is what gives us hope in America.



Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.



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Jakelin was a 7-year-old fleeing gang infested Guatemala.

Felipe Gómez Alonzo died of an infection and the flu at 8-years-old

Juan de León Gutiérrez was 16-years-old when he died from an infection.

A 2-year-old died of pneumonia.



These are just a few of the 15,000 children imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other United States Government Agencies and their for-profit contractors. They are being kept in concrete cells, deprived of basic necessities, and starving from hunger. The filth they are forced to live in has led to flu, lice, and respiratory outbreaks, that are purposefully being neglected. And guards punish these children for minor offences by taking away their blankets, mats, and forcing them to sleep directly on the concrete floor (Southern Poverty Law Center)



I am extremely disturbed that a country that has shown me and my family such kindness is so cruel to others. This is not about politics. This is about justice, kindness, and truth. These children and parents are fleeing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala because government-supported gangs are violently attacking them (United Nations). After a dangerous journey, we deny them their rights to asylum (Amnesty International), we kidnap and lose their children (American Civil Liberties Union), cage and sexually assault kids (New York Times), and deny them due process and indefinite imprisonment at detention/internment/concentration camps (Los Angeles Times). We're allowing them to die in these terrible conditions (NBC News). And we arrest and try to imprison good, Christians who provide food and water to those in need (The Guardian).



I don't care about politics and find involvement in them to be humiliating. I do care about honesty, fairness, and respect. I ask that you remember your family roots, that you search your heart, and confront cruelty in all its forms.



For ways to help, please visit:

https://www.raicestexas.org/