CHICAGO (CBS) — The hot dog.
Many Chicagoans consider them works of art, but one Chicago woman elevates them from paper wrappers or plastic baskets to the artist’s canvas.
Julia Hagen shares her recipe for success.
“I use some neon colors. You can kind of like see on my palate here.”
We all like our art a certain way. But an artist like Hagen agrees there’s only one way to order a hotdog.
“Fully Chicago style. I’m not a tomato person, so I will pick tomatoes off.”
She serves people with a palate for Chicago-style paintings from her home studio.
“So I think it’s sort of like storytelling through hotdog stands,” Hagen said. “The mission is to visit and then paint as many Chicago hotdog stands as I can in 2024.”
The mission started in Logan Square with Redhot Ranch – and a realization: Even a humble hotdog stand can be fine art.
“I’ve only done nine so far, so this is kind of wild to me that this is like really gone places with just nine paintings,” Hagen said.
She visits each stand, samples each hotdog, and spends a week on each piece.
“So I’m currently working on Jimmy’s, Original Jimmy’s, Hagen said.
She documents the process on Instagram – and relishes customer feedback.
“The past three paintings I’ve posted, people have been mad at me. They’re like, ‘We told you to paint Jimmy’s!’ Like, ‘Why haven’t you painted Jimmy’s yet?’ So, I was like, ‘Alright. The people have spoken.’ I have to go paint Jimmy’s.”
By the end of the year, Julia hopes to finish more than 50 canvas paintings.
“I just didn’t realize they meant this much to people.”
“It’s like, oh yeah, that is an important memory for me, or that’s something that’s like a cornerstone of my childhood in some capacity.”
Every last stand is painted to order – Chicago style.
“Dare I say like there’s not a whole lot that we can agree on sometimes in this world, but maybe we can all agree on like a good hotdog, so haha.”
