No scams, just cats: Meet Derek Erdman, the man behind the ‘Cat Pix’ flyer

This is not your average cat story.

Four years ago, someone taped a flyer to a vacant storefront window in Logan Square next to Lula Cafe. It showed a charming line drawing of a cat and announced anyone who texted an accompanying phone number would receive free cat pictures in a text reply.

Intrigue has overcome skepticism about 500 times since, triggering a vibration in the pocket and a smile on the face of Derek Erdman.

“I mean, how many things these days are not a scam? This is one thing that is not a scam. Just cat pics,” Erdman explained after overcoming his own skepticism about the authenticity of a newspaper reporter calling to enquire about his service.

Erdman, 51, is a self-taught artist who lives in a Logan Square apartment filled with paintings, large plants, records, kitsch and two rescued cats: Chichi, who’s shy, and Archie, who’s simple.

A regularly-plucked standup bass, a catharsis buy after a recent breakup, leans in a corner.

He spends about four minutes a day happily fulfilling cat pic requests.

When he was a kid growing up outside Cleveland, Erdman and his friends would swap the yard furniture of nearby homes and revel in the ensuing confusion. They also posted fake “No Parking” signs and rearranged traffic cones to change the flow of cars.

Erdman refers to such acts as civil disobedience, or “civil d” for short.

“There was a time when it was teetering on mischief, mean spirited, I’ve definitely tried to swing it the other way since,” Erdman said.

A more recent sampling of Erdman’s anonymous antics includes:

• Slipping a fake book entitled “Taylor Swift Without Skin: A Child’s Guide To Anatomy” on a rack of children’s books at a Target store on the North Side.
• Hanging a “Jussie Smollett Dog Park” sign that was a reasonable facsimile of a Chicago Park District original on a fence surrounding a grassy lot in Logan Square.
• Affixing “Feed The Rats” posters to utility poles in alleys that mimic the look of official city posters imploring people to prevent rodent buffets by securing garbage in bins.

Erdman describes his Cat Pix project as “pure joy civil d.”

Aaron Johnson, co-owner of Esquire Barbershop in Andersonville, saw one of the cat flyers in Logan Square last summer and texted a request for photos.

“I don’t know if you’re a cat owner, but whenever you leave your cat at home, you miss your cat,” he said. “And with this, you just text and say ‘Hey I’d like some pics of cats please’ and he sends you f--- ton pictures of cats. I say ‘thanks’ and send back a picture of my cat, but we’re not having a conversation or anything — and that’s it. It brightens my day, and I move on.”

Erdman initially got into art as a commercial enterprise.

Shocked by the price and quality of art he encountered while living in Pilsen in his 20s, he thought: I can do that. So he painted goats on plywood, hawked them for $12 a pop and “sold enough of those to take it more seriously.”

Today, his art covers the walls and shelves of his Logan Square apartment, which he turns into an art gallery open to the public twice a year.

Bibles with a peep hole installed in the center occupy the mantle of a fireplace. The altered books “offer a new way to view the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he said. Gideons bibles, he noted, are the easiest to drill through because of the type of paper used to make them.

A couple of his screen printed T-shirts have garnered cease-and-desist letters. One featured the word “GUCCI” above a knife wielding, skateboarding, fast-food mascot; the other said “Kill and Eat Kylie Jenner.”

Erdman said he has evolved with his art, which accounts for about half his income.

“Instead of just approaching art as something you’re making and selling, I realize it should probably be something that encompasses your entire life ... how you live your life, in a way,” he said.

His day job, which he says keeps him anchored in the real world, is managing the office for a Fulton Market law firm.

He previously worked at a Kinko’s, where he gained appreciation for efficiency and graphic design, and at an indie record label in Seattle. In 2003, Erdman founded a record store on the South Side with a couple pals called Hyde Park Records that he helped run for three years.

Doing art full time tends to devolve into painting people’s pets and babies to make ends meet, he said. “I’ve done that. I don’t want to do that.”