Walking Art

Yesterday, while going about my day, I stopped off at a street art vendor in Union Square Park whose work I greatly admire. I had been to this guy's table before and got to talking with him. Come to find out, he also has a website called, Walking Art (make sure to allow pop-ups). Looking at the site, you can get an idea of his technique.

Flipping through his work, I became so taken with a print, I couldn't stop thinking about it. You see, I lived in this city all through 9/11. I heard the first plane, I saw the buildings come down with my own eyes. I remember the absolute sheer horror of that day, and the depressing aftermath that followed. Some time afterwards, I began to look for art which would represent the Twin Towers, but I never found what I wanted. Also, it didn't matter how long it took in order to locate exactly I wanted. I kept a strict list of criteria:

* It could only be one defining piece of art. No shrines.
* Nothing large or that dominates its surroundings.
* No typical shots.
* Something personal, which spoke directly to me. Something I could look at and remember not only the towers, but what the city was like prior to the attacks.

Several years later, in this artist, I finally found what I was looking for.

The print is somewhat similar to this one. Not only does it show a view of the whole church, but it's been manipulated and the negative purposely damaged to create a certain effect.


This was St. Nicholas Church. A Greek Orthodox church, it used to stand right there in the shadow of the Twin Towers. You see, prior to these buildings, stood a once thriving neighborhood. It's pretty hard for a lot of people to imagine that a neighborhood was torn down in the 1970's in order to create the World Financial Center. St. Nicholas was one of the last survivors of that era. Look at the photo to the right. The church has a parking lot around it. That's how much it had survived. It just stood there while others built around it. On that horrible day, Tower Two collapsed right on top of it. The church now ceases to exist.

I thought the juxtaposition of religion and commerce, combined with a mixed of old and new was stunning. Not to mention the power of resurrection in the face of both the church and the towers (both are going to rebuild). Remembering this church is like recalling an old friend. I always thought the World Financial Center was a bit dull. The church however in its beauty and simplicity, always made me chuckle a bit, knowing it was sticking out like a sore thumb in order to prove a point...That it survived.