Arnie Charnick at work on a Hotel Edison mural (Photo © Howard Sherman)

There are many who remain upset with the owners of the Hotel Edison for their ejection of the Edison Cafe several years ago, and you can count me among them, because along with the cafe went the best chicken soup I’ve ever had, a balm on days when it was cold out or I had a cold.

But now I have to tip my hat to those same owners, who, in the process of renovating the hotel, haven’t taken the corporate, pre-fabricated route, at least so far as the deco-ish lobby goes. Indeed, on this post-Tony Awards morning, when many Times Square denizens are still rousing themselves, there’s an artist in the passageway that connects 46th and 47th Streets through the Edison, painting new murals that evoke the bygone days of Times Square, at the turn of the 20th century, in the 1940s and in the “bad old days” of the 1970s (as seen thought the eyes of a motorist cruising 42 Street).

I would have liked to see more varied representation of people of color in the images, since they were far from absent in Times Square over the years. The objectification of women in several images, while perhaps true to the eras portrayed, perhaps need not have been quite so foregrounded. Al Jolson in blackface, while certainly accurate, perpetuates a discredited practice.

Yet it is a pleasure to see artwork in progress, not just a digital print-out being pasted to a wall. I made a point of telling the artist, Arnie Charnick, that his work was exciting, since we so rarely have that opportunity to express our appreciation directly to any artists, but I must confess that his mumbled reply was inaudible to me. No doubt his head was filled with thoughts of the work at hand, and a passerby snapping pictures with his iPhone was one of what is assuredly many distractions as he works so publicly.

Nonetheless, if you like seeing public art in progress, hustle to the Edison and take a look over Arnie’s shoulder. The art is handmade, and the hands are still making it.

Update, June 12, 2018: Apparently I was not the only person concerned about the representation people of color in these works. Subsequent to this post going up at 10 am on June 11, the artist removed the words “Place Trash Here” from a trash can visible in the lower left of the 1970s image, which depicts a black man in the can. The Daily News wrote about the complaints of hotel staff members which led to this alteration. My intent was not to precipitate censorship of the work, only to express my own response to it, but works in progress are not yet set in stone, or paint, as the case may be.

Hotel Edison lobby mural of the turn of the century by Arnie Charnick

Hotel Edison lobby mural, of the 1970s, by Arnie Charnick

Arnie Charnick using a digital reference at the Hotel Edison (Photo © Howard Sherman)

Thanks to smartphone technology, we all walk around with cameras in our pockets or bags, but tend to pull them out to take pictures of events, of friends, of ourselves. As someone trained on 35 millimeter film cameras at the age of 11 or 12, and trained to use a darkroom at perhaps 14, I still can’t adjust to the idea of pointing a phone to take a picture. Indeed, when I’m not otherwise laden down by a bag of some kind, I usually have a DSLR with me, to confirm to the kind of picture taking I learned some 40 years ago.

That said, I’m always alert to the possibility of some striking image crossing my path, and over the past eight months or so, I’ve come to realize how many images literally roll right by me. It seems that an increasing number of white panel vans, making deliveries throughout the city, have been turned over to artists, who are allowed and it would seem encouraged to make statements on these motorized tabulas rasa, undertaking works that range from vivid graffiti to subjects more deliberate and varied. I wonder whether they’re created to stave off unauthorized graffiti artists or perhaps to stake out territory that will warn them away. Whatever their provenance, they certainly brighten up the streets, and bring urban art into the increasingly sanitized center of Manhattan, without vandalizing property in the process.

Below is a selection of examples I’ve caught since the beginning of the year, some parked, some merely stopped at traffic lights, causing me to move fast and capture them in less than optimal circumstances. I make no claims for these as photography, but merely as a record of public art, unsubsidized by public funds, that might go unnoticed or even unseen by many.

All photos © Howard Sherman