Things
I See On the Streets of New York City
This is a new feature
on my website that will feature freaky and non-freaky things and people
and things that are people (freaky and non-freaky) on the streets of Manhattan
and the other five boroughs of New York City. Things that I think need
exposure.
Daniel,
the "Maze" Guy:
Maybe I shouldn't call this section "Weird
Things I See On the Streets of NYC" as much as "INTERESTING Things I See..."
On one of my (too many) trips to Kim's
Video on Avenue A, I was weaving my way around the usual assortment of
street vendors and odd characters with blankets and tables selling everything
imaginable (mostly found objects and discarded flotsam and jetsam from
the trash cans of NYC - finding it's way back into the homes of new inhabitants
for a small price - ahhhhh the great wheel of life!). As I turned to enter
Kim's, my attention was quickly averted by a big fold out table with a
black cloth over it and a home made sign leaning against the front that
said "Mazes". This was certainly different. I approached the table and
saw neatly arranged stacks of hand drawn maze puzzles. The MANY different
maze designs had been xeroxed onto 81/2x11 paper and each one had been
neatly placed into a plastic sleeve. Some had been blown up slightly larger
- and there was even a series of mazes that had been bound into a reproduced
"Maze Book". The prices on some of the items were set, and were very realistic,
but many of the items were for sale for whatever you thought they were
worth (kind of like when you pay to go into the Metropolitan Museum of
Art!) The artist sat behind the table, manning his wares and was very happy
to answer any questions about the work. And all the while the artist was
diligantly at his sketch pad - drawing MORE and MORE and MORE mazes.
The mazes themselves have a very odd, trippy
quality - and the nature of the work kind of pulls you in (either before
or after you have stopped trying to figure out the maze - hey! - it's art
that's CONSTRUCTIVE to look at! Wow!). The mazes are complex and very intricate,
yet they have a very warm, immediate, "folk art" feel to them.
Kind of like M. C. Escher by way of Raymond
Pettibon.
Some of the mazes are based on stories
of history or lore (I think - when I asked the artist about some sailboats
with skulls in them he rang off some mythological sounding name 'Oh...those
are the ____ of ____' he said - I can't remember what it was). One maze
I asked him about he said was based on a dream he had. One maze that I
bought has some Egyptian hieroglyphic looking figures that are prancing
through a kind-of spacey bubble landscape forest thing - only to end up
at a little building at the end with a sign that says "Quality Inn". Ahhhhh...
who wouldn't want to end up at a reliable Quality Inn after an Egyptian
stroll through a space bubble forest I ask you?!?! A couple of the mazes
have a kind of heavy-metal-doodling-on-your-high-school-notebook feel to
them, like something you might see on a Cannibal Corpse CD cover.
Then many of the mazes are so intricate,
serpentine and exact that they look like they might have been drawn by
a computer program. These mazes are very unique.
Turns out the artist's name is Daniel or
sometimes "Maze", and he sells his work directly to the public on Avenue
A right outside Kim's Video (very clever location by the way). I have also
seen him at Astor Place across from Barnes & Nobel bookstore (merely
a few yards away from the mysterious 'math' flyer guy who I wrote about
earlier in this section - see below - a connection???) I always stop and
leaf through his work - and I always buy a couple of mazes (I have quite
a collection growing - hey I'm a collector!).
Daniel was kind enough to answer a few
questions for me (below) and let me snap a few photos of him in action
for inclusion on my web page. Thanks Daniel! I pay attention to a lot of
art work and culture in New York and around the world, and I have a lot
of strong opinions about all of it. I find Daniel's work to be ineffable
and interesting on many different levels, and I find the way he sells it
to be remarkable and significant. Why do I get the impression that
when Daniel reads this he's gonna be like "Whoa! What a pretentious fuck!!!"
Well just take a look and see what you
think. And next time you're on Avenue A, or around the East Village, keep
an eye peeled for his "Mazes" sign, and if you see it, by all means stop
by his shop and check out his work:
What name do you
go by? I go by the name Daniel or Maze. (whichever seems
appropriate.)
Where are you
from? Born in Brooklyn, raised on Staten Island. I also
lived in Ocean City, MD and also San Diego, CA.
How did you start
drawing mazes? I started the maze project in '97. I was
unemployed, broke, and on the streets in NYC. I began to draw mazes just
for the heck of it, and discovered what a fantastic craft it really is.
Then I began to xerox them, and present them to people on the streets.
I would sell copies for donations. This always gave me enough money to
get by, and enough encouragement to continue the work.
Why mazes? Mazes
make alot of sense to me. They are very symbolic of life. When I'm working
on one, i feel as if I'm going through a journey.Something about them really
clicks.
Why on 81/2x11
pieces of paper? 8 1/2 x 11 paper is a very practical
medium. It fits very neatly in a backpack. Although I have done some larger
scale stuff, 8 1/2 x 11 mostly what I use.
Why did you decide
to sell your mazes directly to people on the street? I
sell them directly on the streets because its real. I've tried to contact
a few publishers here and there, and will continue trying. For now I sell
them straight to the people because I can... and because its quick cash.
You can contact Daniel through
Dmaze27@hotmail.com
or Dmaze209@yahoo.com. He "almost"
has a website up, go see how it's doing at: Mazonian.com.
Previous "weird things I see on the
strreets of NYC" entry:
The
"Math Flyer" Man:
About two or three weeks ago I was walking east on Astor Place between
Broadway and Lafayette. Sitting on the little stoop under Barnes and Noble
was this old man who was holding a handmade sign that had all this mathematical
gibberish on it. He was holding a cup for change. He wasn't dressed like
a typical homeless person - kind of scruffy - but it looked like he probably
lived somewhere and was clean and well fed.
I passed him once and looked at the sign. The sign was covered on both
sides with what looked like math figures and Greek letters and crude little
diagrams. I don't know much about "high math" but from what I could see,
it made no sense. Or did it? I walked up to him and asked him what
the sign was for and he just stared forward and said nothing. Then I reached
in my wallet, got out a dollar, and put it in his cup, asking again as
I did "What is that sign all about?"
As soon as the dollar hit his cup, he whipped out...A GUN! Hahaha! No just
kidding. He whipped out a Xeroxed flyer printed on legal size paper. On
the flyer were three groupings of the weird math figures like on the sign,
but there were more of them and they were more complex. I took the flyer
and looked at it. I asked him again "What does it mean?" and instead of
saying anything he just whipped out another flyer and handed it to me.
I folded up the flyer and walked home. I know nothing about math, and have
shown it to a few people. Is it real? Does anyone know what it is? Does
he? Is it a code? Schizophrenic scribbling? The combination to unlock time
travel?
Life went on but I kind of forgot about him, but kept the flyer.
A week later I was walking in the same spot and saw one of those stupid
artist who paints really bad Dali-esque "space landscapes" on store bought
canvases with spray paint cans (genius!). A large group of tourists were
gathered around this guy and they were just lapping it up. Ohhh-ing and
ahhhh-ing and snapping photos and actually buying the hilarious paintings.
They were in my way dammit!!! Anyway... as I inched passed the mob...who
did I spy, but the old man with his weird math sign and flyers and change
cup!!! He was literally on the edge of the crowd, sitting on his little
stoop, holding up his sign. The crowd was pressed up beside him and he
was hidden by all of them. It was so funny to see him sitting there, and
six inches in front of him was a mob of people who were ALL LOOKING THE
OTHER WAY!!! None of them were paying him any mind. It was kind of sweet
and sad really. But he just sat there as if he didn't even notice them,
ready to hand out the secret code of knowledge to anyone who wanted to
donate a few quarters. Nobody was stealing his spot dammit!!! It was a
real heroic gesture actually... real strength in the face of the abyss
kind of stuff. The whole freaky, creepy situation was right out of a Philip
K. Dick novel.
Anyway, this second time that I observed the man, I noticed he had little
white bandages on the ends of each of his ten fingers. I saw him chewing
the bandages at one point (were the bandages there because he had a compulsive
problem about chewing his fingers?). I also saw that he smoked, as I saw
him put the sign down and light one up. He also had a Starbucks coffee
cup next to him.
I watched him for quite a while. Not one person stopped and asked him about
the sign. At one point a little tourist girl who was watching the painter
accidentally backed into him and turned around. The man did not even flinch.
The little girl's tourist mother turned around and looked at the man and
pulled her daughter away from him.
I thought to myself "I have to come here with a camera and take a
picture of this guy and put his picture, along with his flyers, on my website!"
I must be under some sort of high-mathmatical spell to spread his code.
Or something. Well... I have been back to the same spot THREE times in
the last week and a half and the man has not been there. Maybe he felt
he spread the message enough. Maybe he was beamed back up (or back underground).
Maybe he was hauled off... I don't know. Since I couldn't get a photo I
have made a little drawing. Here it is:
For a look-see at
the two sections of figures on the flyer he gave me, click here
and here. Study it! What does it mean?
For a map of where
exactly he was seen click
here.
Next time I see something
interesting on the streets I will expose it here. Stay tuned...
back
to MarkAllenCam.com
