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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
Does a ubiquitous New York street artist deserve a year in prison because of a fish mural?
Apr 20, 2004 | I had never stopped to read a James De La Vega chalking until the spring of 2000, while I was on the way to the 92nd Street Y where I work out. It was a warm day, and I was already wearing sandals. I looked down and saw a picture of a little bird, chirping. I moved to my left to find the beginning of the sentence and read: THIS MOMENT IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN YOU THINK. I had been feeling melancholy that morning and this aphorism was an articulation of my very thought.
A few weeks later, I finally tracked down De La Vega in his small glass-encased studio on 103rd Street in Spanish Harlem to ask him about his work. The chalkings had brought me to him, and he was pleased, because this is another of his pursuits, reaching out to people who live below the interface, the invisible line at 96th Street that separates Spanish Harlem, El Barrio, from the rest of New York.
De La Vega's chalkings and murals make him probably the most revered street artist in New York; the chalkings can be found all over the city but mostly in front of subway stations and on well-traveled streets. But they may not be there for long. Last week, De La Vega entered a not guilty plea on a charge of intentionally defacing public property, after he was arrested last July 17 while working on a mural on the side of a Bronx warehouse. He was reportedly offered a 30-day jail sentence in return for a guilty plea, but instead, on June 9, he will be a defendant in the Bronx Criminal Court to challenge New York City's "graffiti laws," passed in the early 1970s during Mayor John Lindsay's administration, which made painting on a wall an act of vandalism. The graffiti task force Lindsay set up is still in operation, and De La Vega has been charged under a law that reads in part: "No person shall write, paint or draw any inscription, figure or mark of any type on any public or private building ... pursuant to a franchise, concession or revocable consent granted by the city, unless the express permission of the owner or operator of the property has been obtained."
De La Vega, 32, was arrested once before, in 1999, as he was painting the wall of the Associate Foods Supermarket near his gallery. Two hours after he pleaded guilty, the owner of the supermarket, Euripides Reynoso, came to his defense, saying he had been given permission for the painting, but it was too late -- De La Vega was found guilty and given probation. "I plan to call Mr. Reynoso as a defense witness during the trial in June," says De La Vega's attorney, Kenneth Gilbert, of the nonprofit Neighborhood Defenders. "And there are many others who love James De La Vega and his work if the judge will allow them time to speak." Meanwhile, Robert Johnson, the Bronx district attorney, recently told the New York Times, "We find it offensive that people come here and treat our walls as their canvas."
After the plea hearing, De La Vega said, "I could not admit to intentionally damaging property. I did not think of the wall as private property; it is a wall of art. For years it has always been filled with graffiti. I added to it. My intent was to share my art in the hopes of bringing a smile or a thought to the commuters stopped at the traffic light at a busy intersection in the Bronx."
