MASK ON THE TRACKS

April 10, 2011. Sometimes I almost abandon any semblance of good sense and want to do something stupid like clamber down on the tracks to save art. Such was the case here. I almost couldn't bear to see this mask lying there, repeatedly crossed over by the subway. Impassively challenging, red lips wanting to speak, drawing you to them. Green face growing in front of you. I still wonder if it is there and if I need to add a tool to my briefcase, a telescoping hand to grasp things beyond my reach but not my appreciation.

MASK FACE

March 31, 2011. This drawing of a mask wasn't meant for everyone. The artist applied it to the back of a phone booth in the subway. To see it, you had to stop, turn away from the tracks and look behind a support post. Why? Was it to force you to look for it? Was the act of standing in front of it, or simply walking past it too easy? Here you had to make a conscious decision to view it. And this seems to be the view the artist wanted - the far side of the face was only to be imagined.

MASK-A-RAID

October 23, 2010. Midtown, on my way to swimming. What is this one hiding from, what crime did he commit, or does he plant to? It's all so clean, until you get to the chest, and then he drips off the plane. There is something Maxwell Smart about him, and then more sinister.

A PINK PANTHER

Sunday, January 17, 2010. Who is it that arrived home only to find they had left their mask somewhere along the roadway? How many tears were shed in remorse and loss? Or was this a super hero, bounding from rooftop to rooftop, scampering between the alleys, a mini pink panther, saving little lost souls, or monitoring the neighborhood for bullies taking lollipops from babies? What did the rest of the uniform look like?