Saturday Surprise – Pothole Art!

Posted on by under animals, Humour, Saturday Surprise

Whew … finally, the weekend!  That first full week after a couple of short weeks and all the holiday hustle and bustle always seems longer than average.  Back to the grind, catching up, making up for lost time … Friday afternoon always seems like a long way off.  But, we all survived another week and now it’s time for a bit of fun, yes?  Jim Bachor is 52-years-old, lives in Chicago, Illinois, and is known locally as ‘the pothole guy’.  Now, you might think that’s not a very becoming nickname, but just wait ’til you see what earned him that title.  Jim is a professional artist, stay-at-home dad and former corporate branding executive who turns ugly potholes into mosaic art.  It was in 2013 when Bachor began filling potholes with a clever 16-by-24-inch mosaic, modeled on the design of the official Chicago flag but with the word “Pothole” through the center.pothole.pngIn a 2014 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Jim said …

“This started a year ago. I watched these pothole crews going up and down my street, and there was a defiant pothole in front of my house that was just staying, that wasn’t being fixed. I thought I should fill it in. So I waited until nightfall. I was paranoid about attracting attention, and because it was toward the center of the street, I wanted to be careful. My wife asked me if she should set aside money for bail. Our 87-year old neighbor, from his porch, served as my spotter. I mixed cement, poured it in the hole, let cars go by, poured some more. It worked great. The thing is, these mosaics would last forever if I could just control the canvas.”

Since then, Jim has taken his show on the road, filling in potholes in New York City with his mosaic tiles in a project he calls “Vermin of New York” …pothole-2

pothole-5.jpg

pothole-3.jpgBut last July, an interview with the New York Post gained him some unwanted attention by the city, and they began ripping his work out of the ground.

“It’s unbelievable. And they’re not just pouring concrete over it, they’re using a jackhammer to actually dig it up and that takes work.”

jim-bachorIt’s especially sad since each one costs Jim around $50 to create!  The city claims that the mosaics were a safety hazard — because drivers might be distracted.  Um … hello???  And the potholes that nearly swallow a car alive aren’t a distraction and a safety hazard???

At any rate, Jim has done several series of Pothole Art, mainly in Chicago, so let’s take a look at a few …

pothole-6pothole-7pothole-8

pothole-9

Aretha Franklin

pothole-icecreamconepothole-chicken

I found a rather interesting interview with Jim, if you’re interested, and of course, he has a website!  On arriving at his website, you will notice a mosaic picture of an old fashioned ‘tv dinner’ that he has for sale … only $2,400!

And finally, in case you’re in need of just a bit of animal humour …

Have a great weekend, my friends!

28 thoughts on “Saturday Surprise – Pothole Art!”

  1. I am determined to not only read, but also to comment on every last one of your posts that have been accumulating amidst my inbox…never mind the hundreds of other emails. Benjamin’s parting words as he was leaving yesterday, besides the usual “I love you!, I miss you already!, Namaste!, were : “Gem, don’t forget to clean our computer mailbox!” He had complained loudly that morning about the “too many letters, I can’t find mine”…he sees emails as “mine, yours and ours”! My excuse, should you need one, is that some I have read and lacked the time to comment, others I have read and needed time to process prior to commenting and others are simply still unread (insert any excuse). Considering that I am retired and my only responsibility, other than two cats and at times a dog, is entertaining a 5 year old three days a week…it boggles the mind what the harry I spend all my hours on! Well, I did spend the majority of Tuesday dismantling the Christmas tree whilst listening to the needles hitting the floor as each ornament was removed & carefully packed away (including the 8 strings of lights), removing the tree from the stand’s embedded braces, dragging the tree to the curb before Wednesday’s pick-up, taking down the house decorations and the laboriously packing them into their proper boxes (a task made easier with the addition of written lists for the contents of each), sweeping up the debris from the totally decimated tree that had spread to infinity and beyond, and finally the packing away of the multitude of boxes. Now, before my propensity for loquacity kicks in, I shall comment on this post…New York City destroyed these pieces of art that were freely given!?!? I would have loved to have driven over Trump’s face and reversed just for the pleasure of doing it again, or perhaps keep driving around the block to run over Trump for hours on end. While Jim Bachor is a talented artist, his work is a bit above my price range, say about $2,350 beyond! Benjamin will love this video! Thank-you!

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    • Ellen, Ellen, Ellen!!! You know how much I love your comments and look forward to them each day, but they should never become burdensome! Feel free, if the email gets backlogged, to delete them all and start fresh with the new day! Nothing I write is so important that it should cause you stress! Now, that said … you have beaten me, for we will be taking our tree down this afternoon … probably … maybe. Oddly, it is dropping very few needles and is still quite fresh! But, I am ready to restore order to my home, so down it must come. The rest of the decorations, the village, the candles, the what-nots, will come down a few at a time in the next few days, but the tree I need help with, so I must do it today while daughter Chris is home to help.

      I agree that the City of New York was thoughtless and I loved the fact that Trump was part of Bachor’s “Vermin Series”!!! I wonder if word of it ever got back to Donnie? Probably so. Have a great week, my friend …. keep warm!

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      • Jill, Jill, Jill!!! Burdensome…NEVER and stress would be of my own making! It seems to me that if you take so much of your time and effort to produce these posts, the least a faithful follower can do is leave a little token of appreciation in the form of a comment. There are two people in the whole world who appreciate my wit and my occasional bit of wisdom. One is Benjamin, though he is but a child and there are times that he fails to grasp it fully…a work in progress, you might say. The other is YOU! Unlike poor Benjamin, you can ignore or delete or heaven forbid, block me (is that the correct blogdom term?) My dear children have grown accustomed to my propensity for loquacity and are quite adept at tuning me out, while still appearing to listen (I catch the glazed look in their eyes!). Then there are the times when I get the “give me the edited version” and you see, so much is lost in the editing, as you may well understand…what to say and what not to say, that is the question and the answer eludes me! Thank-you!

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        • You just made me smile … a big smile! I do appreciate that you feel that way … you always make me feel appreciated, and that is the thing that keeps me doing this when some days I get down and think that this blog has no value and I should just quit. I’ve only felt that way twice, but both times it was comments like yours that made me keep writing, keep trying. I started to say that surely your children must appreciate your wit and wisdom, but then I remembered how my own girls I am sure ofttimes roll their eyes when I get off on a tangent. Overall, though, I think they enjoy my stories and insights. They don’t read this blog though, or at least rarely. Usually they will if I threaten to withhold supper or to let their laundry pile up ’til they have no clean undies! 🤣 And you are right … the Cliff notes version will inevitably fall flat, for the whole purpose is in the telling and the details. I, on the other hand, adore your Propensity for Loquacity! You always make me smile, and I almost always learn something new from you! And young Benjamin is getting a very valuable education that he would never get in a hundred years of schooling. Keep on with your P for L, ma’am!!!

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  10. Well, that was great. I love the Trump mosaic in the ‘Vermin’ series.

    There once was a man called ‘Trump’
    Who’s hair made him look such a ‘Frump’
    He looked like most vermin
    Quite stomach churnin’
    Except worse, a huge great Lump!

    No offense to Vermin!

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