George Bailey

Sometimes it takes just walking through the front door of someone's home to know you really like them.



All of us who attend the Oak Park Farmers Market will know the soulful voice of George Bailey. Children surrounding him and his drumming partner to partake in the music making, but it was his mentoring of underpowered teen boys that attracted me. As my Oak Parkers project evolved I quickly became attracted to passionate people, people who deeply care about the work they do and George is a deep person. Musician, mentor, painter, writer and teacher, I’m not sure if he is more passionate about one of these over the others, I’m guessing he doesn’t think of it like that, I’m pretty sure there is a lot of passion is all that he does.

His home is a comfortable one. One where I would have been happy to sit and talk for hours about the Dogon people, painting, ancestry, moving from the south to Chicago, Chicago, family, his teaching at Columbia, life...

I walked out of his house into a steamy summer morning reminded that I love people; I love to hear people talk about their life and loves. I love to see what people are working on, their painting, their cooking, their garden whatever it is that excites them. And I was reminded that yes there are fascinating people all around us every day if we just take the step to get to know one another.