INTERVIEW: Ray “CRO” Noland

I met Ray Noland last summer at a panel discussion featuring other local artists and curators, for which he was a participant and I a moderator. But I’ve admired his work for the past few years now, ever since I’d moved to Pilsen from Hyde Park in the summer of 2007 and started seeing his Go Tell Mama! street art campaign: a colorful and startling series of pro-Obama posters and stencils made manifest all up and down the neighborhood, most conspicuously on the newspaper boxes lining the basketball courts only a block away from my house. I Flickr-ed the images to learn their origins, and discovered the elusive and ubiquitous artist behind the alias “CRO.” What began as a passing curiosity quickly grew into fascination, and I found myself following CRO’s work on the street and online on the regular. When Mr. CRO somehow showed up to a party and art exhibition I’d held few weeks later (actually, the first ever “NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS” event), I was far too embarassed to introduce myself. Cut to two years later at said panel discussion, where the artist known as CRO proved himself as thougtful and well-spoken as he was mysterious. I finally got to introduce myself for real and was fortunate enough to make friends before he flew the coop last September.

As much as I’d like to, I can’t pretend to know him well. But what little I do know is that Ray is making some of the most iconic and important art to come out of Chicago since Carl Sandburg wrote about a “City of the Big Shoulders.” CRO is currently in Asheville, North Carolina, fundraising for a new street art campaign combating the ignorance and idiocy that is the Tea Party Express. Can you dig it? Read more below and consider participating in The People’s Party, either by donating to the cause or spreading the word by downloading this free poster and putting it up WHERE FREEDOM RINGS.

Blago’s Shoe Shine © CRO 2009

Angeline: Why did you leave Chicago for Asheville? What have you been up to down there?
CRO: Sometimes you feel the world is telling you things. You can either ignore these messages or listen. I felt I needed a bit of a break. The past 3 years really wore me out. For as much beauty as I saw, there were many things that really let me down. Originally, I thought I would come here and write a book about my Obama experience but through the process of thinking about it realized that I actually don’t really care about that.

A: In retrospect, how has your experience working on “Go Tell Mama!” shaped your work today?
C: Oddly enough it’s actually made me more cynical and apathetic. GTM gave me a chance to conduct a bit of a public experiment. I got to see the political inner workings of things. I also got to see how manipulative mainstream media is firsthand. It’s all kind of a joke. Sometimes it’s better to just eat the sausage, metaphorically speaking. Once you see how it’s made and what’s in it, it’s a let down. As Americans we are getting so worked over. Politics is not about having the tough conversations. Sadly, it’s simply about winning.

No Race Creme Series: American Values © CRO 2010

Proposed route of Anti-Teabagger poster campaign (along same route as the Tea Bagger Express).

A: What and Who is The People’s Party?
C: The People’s Party is you and me. As some of you know, the Supreme Court recently ruled corporations can now dump as much of their money into politics as they please. During the election of 2008 regular people like myself could use the Internet in extraordinary ways–we had a voice like never before. For a time the scales had become balanced. Right now it seems like most folks could care less. But just wait til the next election comes around and your voice is drowned out by the constant onslaught of corporate influenced ads that will saturate your television. If regular people don’t find some way to unite themselves we are in for one hell of a shit future. Most of America believes everything they see on TV. The brainwashing will continue but on a grand scale. The People’s Party is an attempt to unite like minds whether Black, White, Gay, Straight, Woman or Man. As soon as we can stop bickering amongst ourselves and realize we have more in common and who the real enemy is we can actually take steps to make this country more than a shell of itself. Obama talks about calling people out but I still see him beating around the bush. My first goal with the People’s Party is calling out the Tea Bag Express and conveying how ignorant and misinformed they are. How the base of their movement draws upon historically racist fears. If you feel the same please support this mission.

A: What do you think of your peers, specifically those working in graphic design or street art? Are there any contemporary artists you especially admire and support?
C: There are too many to list them all but a few include; Banksy, Mr. Eddie, Scot Lafavor, El Mac, CHOR Boogie, Cody Hudson, Chris Silva, Date Farmers, Maya Hayuk, David Ellis, Juan Chavez, STATIK, and SWOON. I like creative expression in general and can usually gain something from everyone’s voice. With that said, personally, I like work that has just as much, if not more, substance as style. I’m a nerd, I like to use my brain as much as my eyes. I need work that makes me think about it long after I’ve seen it. Like a good movie, do you wanna just sell a bunch of tickets or do you wanna make a lasting impact?

A: What are some of the challenges you encounter in your day-to-day artistic practice?
C: I get the impression there are forces out there who really don’t want to hear what I have to say and have the power to censor me. They would rather I make non-confrontational pretty pictures of kids dancing around a tree. I struggle with trying to figure out ways to have conversations directly with the people and how to cut out the middlemen – who’d like to control the information. Day-to-day I struggle with the same issues most Americans deal with – how to pay bills, how to get clients to pay me on-time and value my work and how to fund my ideas.

A: You’ve got a long-term collaboration going on with Motionographer Rebecca Berdel for Mocro.tv. Tell us about that. What have you learned about the creative process from this relationship?
C: When Rebecca and I are at our best we make some impressive work. When we aren’t, it can get difficult. At times we debate over the direction of the work like the Coen Bros fighting about the direction of a scene in The Big Lebowski. I bring certain things to the table she can’t and in return she does the same. You know, I’ve learned a lot about letting things go. Collaboration can be tough. Ultimately you really have to learn how to respect one another on an equal playing field.

A: Where do you hope to be in a year with your career? What do you hope to accomplish?
C: This is my life. I don’t really have aspirations to work for a corporate agency or some other full-time job. The future is about figuring out how to prosper as an independent participant in the global market. I only want the freedom to produce my ideas and speak truth. That is happiness.

I hope my work is a simple document of time. When I’m not around anymore I hope folks can look back at my work and get a clear understanding of what it felt like to be an American in the 21st century. I like to think I make work about issues we all think about but don’t really like to talk about or simply ignore. I’m not trying to sugar coat anything or pretend this country has evolved somewhere that it hasn’t. After traveling this country coast-to-coast I understand we still have major issues. Sure we may not be talking about burning crosses and fire hoses but we are talking about a culture of subtle, quiet self-segregation. I mean only 5% of Americans attend integrated churches. For me that’s a red flag. I’m giving you the straight dope. I hope we stop lying to ourselves about this post-racial crap and have the conversations we need to have to actually take steps forward.

The DADT Problem © CRO 2010

A: A lot of your work is about identity. How has your understanding of your own identity informed how you choose to portray identity, and how you identify with your audience? 
C: I’d rather not think about identity but I am confronted with it practically everyday. What does it mean to be American? What are the branded messages conscious and unconscious society tells us about ourselves? How is identity defined for many by what we see on TV and how does that differ from reality? Much of my work is about coming to terms with this. Our societal problems have been carefully crafted and orchestrated for years and have developed over generations. I reject many of these notions and my work is an ongoing attempt to redefine or re-brand them. I can empathize with gender and LGBT issues and I hope they can empathize with me.

A: Describe the Internet. In five words.
C: Infinite Access Uncensored Immediate Freedom

CRO by Sarah Hoskins

Ray Noland is an artist and designer working under the alias CRO. He is the creator of “GoTellMama!” – a grassroots Obama art, video and street campaign which toured the country during the election of ’08. He is also the artist behind the now iconic “Run, Blago, Run” street art phenomenon. Noland also independently published the now-defunct online magazine BLACKLIST® (’03-’06). He has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (’95) and has worked professionally as an art director and brand designer. His art & illustrations have been published throughout the US and Europe and are in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. Though Noland’s work has been displayed in galleries in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and Atlanta, he is more familiar with renting vacant storefronts and converting them into DIY art spaces.

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blago CRO obama people's party politics ray noland street art tea bag party Posted under Interviews by Angeline