This street artist turns potholes into masterpieces

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CBS Sunday Morning)

published 30 June 2020

Jim Bachor has proven that anything can be turned into art — even potholes.

Since 2013, Bachor has filled almost 90 potholes in Chicago, then topped them off with mosaic art; it takes about eight to 10 hours to complete each project. Using glass and marble, he has crafted mosaics depicting everything from roses to ice cream sandwiches, but his focus now is on items that are more topical — since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he has made mosaics showing toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Bachor told CBS Sunday Morning that the mosaics can be considered "a souvenir of these times to look back on," and he is "trying to pull out the positive out of a negative." He knows that his mosaics won't last forever — cars will do damage driving over them, and the streets will be repaved — but Bachor still keeps going. "You know, when you love what you do and a lot of people like what you do," he said, "how could you not continue to do that as long as possible as an artist?" Catherine Garcia

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox