Check24 Art
Sixty-one years ago, Curt Crowell bought a 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster for $700. The plan: Go racing. Blackhawk Farms, Wilmont, Road America—Curt ran his Speedster on the Midwest’s finest tracks in the golden age of road racing. Meadowdale was his favorite, and it was insane. It had the steepest banked corner in the world, the longest straight, and all 12 turns twisted through the woods an hour Northwest of Chicago. Meadowdale closed in1969. Too dangerous. But pieces of the course remain intact in Kane County’s Raceway Woods Forest Preserve, including the water tower featured in our hero art for Check24, created by Chicago’s own Ramiro Huizar in his unmistakable style.
Curt’s 93, now. He still drives the Speedster. After 61years behind the wheel of this well-loved piece of Porsche history, he has enough stories to fill a novel. Catch Curt and the car at Check24, but don’t bring up what the car’s worth. It’s not about that. Anyway, Curt’ll tell you, “about $700.”
To Ramiro, Curt and his Speedster embody the connection between the artist and their art. Huizar’s art embodies his experience growing up in the Southwest side of Chicago as a child of Mexican immigrants. The cactus-headed figure often featured in his work is a self-representation, a character stuck between two cultures seeking identity, and ultimately creating their own. Follow @ramiro_arte_ for more of his work.
‘Meadowdale’ poster available only during Check24.
We worked with Chicago’s own Jeff Pak to filter English Bob’s ’93 RS America racecar with 993 panels, through his eyes and he tapped into prime model-building nostalgia – you can almost smell the Testors! Jeff Pak is our first artist collab for Check24. At it in one form or another since the ‘00s, Pak’s childhood love of cartoons-influenced work focuses on crispy clean lines, bright splashes of color, and humor. He’s been tapped by Nike, Google, and the Chicago Bulls, and we’re excited to add him to our collab roster.
‘English Bob’ poster available only during Check24.
Check23 Art
Guide & Anchor’s branding and creative work for Chicago institutions has been on our radar for a long time. This is Joey and Sara’s take on Tyler Haye’s Achtung Kraft 911 SC,“Chiffonda.” This piece is called “Bearly Escaping.” OK, that Wisconsin 911 probably never had to escape a supernaturally large bear across the cheddar curtain (we’ll ask Tyler), but we like the dramatic sense of adventure this piece evokes.
‘Bearly Escaping’ poster available here.
Welcome Flooding Factory to the growing roster of Checkeditout artist collabs. Flooding Factory is a basement studio created by Chicago public school teacher Dan Estep in 2010. Multi-disciplinary work, painting, drawing, illustration, digital art and sculpture. Estep’s influences range from comics, patterns, psychedelia, music and typography, all to fuel his stream of conscious thoughts, reflections and exploration.
We tasked Flooding Factory to bring Steve Leitner’s (@leitspeed) flat nose, outlaw 930 into Estep’s version of Chicago. We happily announce that this is our shared vision, and with boost!
‘Flooding Factory’ poster available here.