- [Nick] I'm Nick Fonte, I go by Fonte.
I am a local artist.
Born in New York City, raised in uptown Chicago.
- [Ryan] My name's Ryan, I go by StukOne.
I'm from Rockford, Illinois, born and raised.
- [Amuse126] My name is Amuse126,
I am a graffiti artist from Chicago.
- [Nick] Graffiti is one of the four elements of hip hop
which all started in New York City.
It's a moving, living, breathing organism and it started
just with tags, with people tagging their name.
Tagging it around town to where people
started noticing it.
- [Ryan] And so everybody could be like,
"hey, I saw you in uptown, I saw you in downtown
all in the same day."
Then it evolved and people just started tagging
the trains and takin' over train lines,
runnin' train lines.
- [Amuse126] Being able to write your name on a train
would take it from one end of the city to the other,
opening your audience up much, much more.
- [Ryan] I guess, people might have a negative
opinion on graffiti because they don't understand it.
People can gain a lot by being exposed to this
art form for the first time, because it's in every
crevice and corner of the city and it
can take you to places you've never seen in the city.
- [Nick] Being that it's all over the city,
you get to see different neighborhoods,
try different foods, different ethnic groups.
Street art is a positive if you really wanna
get around the city and check it out.
- [Amuse126] Being able to release the Bud Friday
giveaway hat was my way of being able to put graffiti
into people's hands that have never ever been familiar
with such.
I worked on the live painting for the Cubs Convention.
Two new mural installs inside of Wrigley Field.
Opening Day screen print, Cubs Bud Friday hat giveaway
and also a collaboration hat with New Era.
- [Ryan] I designed the giveaway hat and soon
I'll be working on a print to be released
later in the season.
- [Nick] I was recently asked to create a print
with the Cubs that is now sold at the Cubs store
inside the stadium.
It was actually quite the easiest, most fun
I've had designing a print.
I recall countless summers with my dad,
mom and sisters going to night games specifically
and seeing how the sun sets over the park and
the glow that the park gives when the sun is setting
and the color of the sky.
Just seeing how the city is just moving
and changing color as the team is playing.
The artwork that I created for the Cubs,
captures the beauty of what a night game encompasses.
Silhouettes, colors of the sky, the stars, blimps flying
over the stadium, birds.
Being at a stadium at night, it's magic.
It's magical.
- [Amuse126] Growing up in Chicago, I've always had
a very close relationship with the Cubs.
Growing up playing baseball,
I would always make sure I made it to games
and built a very strong relationship with the team
and the neighborhood.
My approach for this project was to
take the traditional graffiti roots and be able
to transfer that over to the classic, traditional
base of the Chicago Cubs brand.
My creative process for the mural that I painted
was to take the two most iconic things in my opinion,
which are the bricks and the ivy
and mix that with my graffiti to build
something really beautiful.
- [Ryan] I grew up playing baseball, I played all the
way through high school,
until I found skateboarding and graffiti.
(chuckles)
Once I started, I just couldn't stop.
It's been 21 years now.
For me, it's giving free art for people to absorb
and take in.
The fact that there's going to be that volume
of people with access to my work
and to be able to wear it and show it off, it's crazy.
It really is like, hard to even describe,
but super blessed and happy to be a part of it.
My whole family are Cubs fans and they'll be at
the game where my hat comes.
They're more excited than I am sometimes I feel like,
which is awesome so yeah, it's a proud moment for me.
- [Nick] It's unbelievable that a team that I admire
so much is willing to work with me as an artist
and fellow artists and are able to understand
that art is valuable and when sports
and art coexist together, it just makes
even better magic.
I hope Cubs fans get somethin' new out of this.
A new sight, a new interest, a new hobby,
a new open mind to something creative and different.
- [Ryan] And to be brought in and accepted for
what we do, from a company, a brand, a program,
like the Cubs, it means the world to all of us.