Forever Golden

Brooks Golden in front of his mural on 16th & Paulina.
(Photo via Brooks' Facebook.)

Rest in peace, Brooks. The Chicago art community truly was and is golden thanks to you.

(More after the jump.)

The night I met Brooks, he was carrying a Jack Daniels plushie.

Handmade by Andrea Alonge, 2011.

I immediately knew he was awesome.

That same night, he told me,

“There’s this level of craftsmanship that’s apparent here in the Midwest and Chicago in particular, whereas if you go [elsewhere] people are very big on the cut and paste aspect of, ‘Oh! I have a cat and I like cats! So I’m going to blow up a giant cat head to be 8 ft. tall and I’m going to put it up everywhere!’ And I guess if that’s your cat and it’s personal to you and you like cats, that all makes a lot of sense, but as an artist, it doesn’t feel valid in the way that there’s a lot of creativity and a lot of work that went into that.”

He told it like it is.

He also had a knack for nicknames.

"Look, this is how I have you in my phone."

If you came to I CAN DO THAT, you probably drew on his work.

Photo by Sophia Nahli, 2012.

If you came to Sixty Inches From Center and Autotelic’s birthday bash, you probably played one of his art games.

If you’ve walked around the city at all, you’ve probably seen his “be golden” stickers, his graffiti, his murals.

He was everywhere.

Thank you, Brooks, for being in our lives. Through your art, you’ll live forever.