Neither more nor less

crazy. of all the historical figures, past and present, within the East Village. Of all the community leaders, the activists, the artists, the musicians... you choose to profile...

The "mosaic man" Jim Powers. Self proclaimed "greatest artist of our generation" and "founder of the east village"

Hmm, I remember doing mosaics from broken glass in 5th grade.

This is not art, This is vandalism.

Artists inspire or move people. Everyone i know looks at a Jim Powers mosaic on a lamp post and say "what the hell is that?"

To the people outside -- Jim Powers is not a respected local artist, but a blight on the community, with from what I understand, an Arrest record pages long.

He is constantly verbally and physically attacking people in the street.

An "important" East Village CHARACTER - YES!

An "important" East Village ARTIST - NO!!!!

What about Harring? Basquiat? Warhol? Auden? Ginsberg? Arcade?

How about Armando Perez? Miguel Pinero? or any active activist who actually do something for the community?

GOOD GAWD CHILD.
 

I mustrecant my last post. Actually Jim Powers is a good man who has been through a lot of crap. The community owes him a great deal of respect.

He was once a mentor of mine. All is good in the old hood.
 

The purpose of all the attention that I have given to Jim ,from the beginning of this blog till now, is not just to serve Jim ,it is as much as anything to point at what is going on in this entire city now as well as in the in the East Village .I admit to having tried to give Jim a favorable human form with dimension that others can consider , but that has not been my only purpose . I'm concerned with the way that people are being displaced at a number of levels in our communities by outsiders . Most of these outsiders are to varying extents transients and are usually individuals relatively well to do compared to those that they displace . They are individuals who are on their way through life and here only for a short time and ,thus, individuals who will never have the time here to contribute in any meaningful way to the maintenance of a community like what has been the East Village .Generally they bring with them their culture and it's material appointments . Such displacement by these transient individuals destroys always and now is destroying much of what, we who have been here a while, know as New York City and certainly also the East Village .

I am well aware of Jim's failings and know your criticisms well.And as for the other artists that you mention ,I was here when they were here and even knew some of them ;they are mostly gone and are not relevent to my purpose in writing and presentin g this blog though they certainly were part of something that was very different from the East Village that we have now ,a much richer ,more human and interesting neighborhood ,though of course a more dangerous neighborhood .Most of these artists probably would not be able today to manifest themselves as the important artists that they were in this environment that is the current East Village . That actually is my point ,Jim is one little piece of what little remains of that .Jim 's story to a large extent has been the telling of this quotidien tale of the loss of a community that was special and worth something much more than the price in money that a relative few have paid to "own" it .Jim's bragging and hyperbole are just Jim .I certainly can't always agree with or approve of what he says or does .Jim can certainly anger and offend . Jim is Jim .His difficulties in some cases have been created by him . Jim is well aware of the fact that he can be his own worst enemy .His difficult life at his campsite was a story of one man's knowing and coming to terms with homelessness while contending with all the other difficulties that were already a part of his life .I am not trying to tell of all who have been here or discuss the relative artistic merits of their work .Jim's story is one of the last flesh and blood stories left to tell . I would just hope that people will read,look ,consider,feel and wake -up to what is going on and what is being lost . It is only going to get worse because we are going to lose much more , probably everything that has made us ,here in this community, what we were and to some extent still are.

Jim's mosaics are what they are . They are at times beautiful ,interesting and sucessful and at times also something less than so .They are not easy to make .Some consider them as vandalism and condemn them ,that's just how it is ,we all see society a little differently from our different perspectives.Again they are in fact not so terribly easy to make and often go in a direction during the making that Jim does not want them to go . Not everything is a sucess.Jim , if you take the time to talk to him ,is well aware that not everything that he makes is the best of all possible work .In the end when you listen ,look and consider the dedication and yes also the insanity ,he stands up as a whole pretty damn well to all the others that you mention .