I was back working on the big mural wall last weekend.
This time with 1980′s ‘fun art’ icon Kenny Scharf.
During the big blizzard, some taggers spray painted their ugly grey names over
Kenny’s trademark cartoon faces. Then they bragged about it on the internet,
and when Kenny replied in complete sentences, without macho posturing, he was
–in true internet form– dismissed as a ‘fag’.
This resulted in a few days of “must be a slow news day” media frenzy.
Meanwhile, the real-estate baron who owns the wall fanned the flames by installing
security cameras and practically daring the taggers to try again.
So… Kenny came back Saturday and spent 8 straight hours non-stop painting in cold and snow, restoring his mural. I parked the motohome right there, and we used it as a base of operations.
It was pretty cold. The spraypaint was thick and splotchy. I started warming cans over the rv propane heater to keep the paint flowing, and the hot cans also kept Kenny’s hand’s warm while working. Tons of admirers stopped by and chatted with Kenny while he worked, and he had a family of supporters in the rv and on the sidewalk: including Kenny’s daughter, Scott Ewalt, dearraindrop, and Maripol (inventor of Madonna’s ‘like a virgin’ look), Joey Arias, and superb photojournalist anthropologist Martha Cooper. Here’s a link to her visual report. Can u spot Icy in these photos?…
http://www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/martha_cooper/
When people talk about ‘the real New York’, they’re looking thru Cooper’s lens:
Much much more:
http://www.nycitysnaps.com/
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