Page 27 - September Issue

“For me, doing this was like asking David Bowie to sing a song,” Bucks reveals. “I felt like I was doing it for my family, so for me, it couldn’t be something that people would say, ‘yeah, that’s cool.’ I had tonailit.Ithadtobeawow.”
Horse Soldier
The Peter Bucks story is a bit of a wow, or it packs some wow factors. He forged a substantive career as an artist, a professional illustrator who worked nearly 10 years for a custom fabrication shop as its lead creative person. One day, he felt like he hit the peak in that industry and needed to take a leap of faith.
In one direction, the leap could have led to starting his own com- pany. In another, he considered going back to school, getting a teach- ing certification and becoming an art teacher. His own academic development led Bucks to love learning about the forms and reasons for drawing and painting.
But forget taking a leap. Bucks made a freaking jump.
“Several of my friends I grew up with in Chicago had become cops,” he explained. “So I gave it a shot and took the test.”
Becoming a cop turned out to be a vital part of developing as an artist. For one, not having to depend on making art to put bread on the table gave him the freedom to make the craft about making the art rather than making money.
But through working patrol for five years and learning the ins and outs of being a cop, Bucks developed a savvy, a maturity really, to bring from one craft to the other.
“I will never regret becoming a police officer,” he continues, “and here’s why: “I was able to get into the streets, into the public and meet a lot of people, whether on good terms or bad. I was able to see a lot of things in life. Being an artist is all visual, and the more you see, the bet- ter an artist you become. The more I experienced really enhanced my artwork.”
Wendy Weller says she noticed her husband was the type to throw everything he has into everything when they met at the academy, and she marvels at how he does that through six-, seven- and eight-hour painting sessions in his Humboldt Park studio. Bucks works as hard at policing as he does at his artwork as he does as a father to 7-year-old daughter Isabella and 3-year-old daughter Adeleine, whom he spends his days with while Wendy works her tours.
So, yes, his life imitates art. Bucks’ own visual begins with the ink up and down his right arm and culminates with the badge hanging from a chain around his neck. It’s easy to buy-in when he confides that he has been doing this ever since he was old enough to hold a crayon.
Clearly, this cop is more than cool. He’s a wow.
“I think he is more than an artist,” says John Gordon, the project manager for the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation who recom- mended Bucks to Chicago – the band, not the city. “He is a great police officer from the guys I talk to, but I think he brings something from both worlds that bring these stories to life.”
Horse Sense
Ah, yes, the stories. Bucks takes on each horse as a composition. Some of these works start with a rough sketch. Some begin with a mental map. “It’s a story without words,” he articulates about his objective with each horse. “I want to convey through imagery the proud moments and let the emotion speak for itself.”
Ironically, the horses began with a cow. Perhaps you recall “Cows on Parade,” which became a worldwide fundraiser after its debut in Chicago in 1999. During that summer, 300 life-size bovine beauties were painted and spread throughout the city on display in parks, streets, and local neighborhoods. Bucks painted a cow for the Clune Construction Company, a work in which he crafted construction scenes into the cow’s spots.
In August 2014, the Police Memorial Foundation began Horses of Honor as a public art campaign to honor Chicago’s fallen heroes. Designed to resemble Chicago’s Mounted Patrol Unit horses, the Horses of Honor stand to provide support and assistance to the fam- ilies of those men and women who have been killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty.
The horses that have been commissioned have raised more than $150,000 already to support the families of fallen officers. In Phase 1 the first year, 90 horses were painted.
Wendy Weller read about the program, and immediately called her husband to suggest he get involved. “I was kind of like, ‘Who do I call?” Bucks recalls. “Wendy said she would do the leg work. She called me back 45 minutes later. She talked to somebody who looked at my web- site, saw that I was a police officer and was like, ‘Perfect. The next per- son we get to sponsor a horse, we will show your portfolio and see if we can get you a horse.’”
Hyatt Hotels reps saw his work and asked Bucks to paint his first horse in honor of Officer Michael Bailey, who was shot while taking action in an attempted armed robbery in front of his South Side home on the morning of July 18, 2010. In tribute to Bailey, Bucks adorned this horse with what he called portraits of diversity, and expressed the diversity of his own family by including portraits of Wendy, Isabella and Adeleine.
With the second horse, the art really began to imitate life, the life of law enforcement as one big family. This commission came from the Michael Ceriale Foundation. Ceriale was gunned down at 26 years old on Aug. 21, 1998 by a 16-year-old gang member. He took a round just below his vest and succumbed six days later.
When the Ceriale family members chose Bucks to paint the horse honoring Michael, they did not know he was a police officer. When they picked Bucks, they did not know that he and Michael were in the same biology class at Gordon Tech.
“Spooky the way it worked out,” President Angelo submits. “And when you look at that horse, you see Michael to a T.”
Gift Horse
Angelo met the Ceriale family when attending the trial for Michael’s murderer. The family invited him to the unveiling of the horse, where he met Bucks and his family. When learning they both worked in gang crimes, the allegiance grew. “From there, it was a slam dunk to have Peter paint our horse,” Mr. President notes.
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