Jim Power's amazing pillar mosaics in East Village

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

People without a fixed abode are often perceived by those around them as declassed elements, unconditionally lost to society. The fate of the 64-year-old American Jim Power, better known in New York as "Mosaic man", is a vivid example of the fact that even in the most difficult situation a person can find a way out and benefit others. Jim spent 26 years on the street, but all these years he has not changed his hobby - decorating lamp posts with amazing mosaics.

The fate of Jim Power was not easy - he went through the Vietnam War. In the 1980s. the veteran settled in East Village, where he began to create the first mosaic masterpieces. He adorned 80 lampposts with designs inspired by American history and culture. However, the authorities did not understand the street artist, and a decade later, in the 1990s, the mayor Rudy Giulianni decided to cleanse the city walls from graffiti. In this struggle for purity, Jim's mosaics also suffered, 50 paintings from multi-colored glass were destroyed. The artist has not lost hope of reviving his work, to this day he has managed to restore each of the mosaics.

Despite the vision problems. Jim Power continues to decorate the streets of the East Village with his mosaics, but in his long life he never received official recognition. It wasn't until 2004 that City Lore, the New York City Cultural Center, made a short film about the work of a street artist and posted it on the Internet. Jim Power's name was announced during the People's Hall of Fame annual awards, but he received no reward for it. Art never brought him money, so Jim was forced to live on the street for many years, collecting alms in order to restore his works.

Jim was always upset by the fact that the New York authorities spent millions on the purchase of works of foreign artists, not paying attention to his work. The street artist himself could not even issue an official request for money for his projects.

To create mosaics, Jim approaches very painstakingly: each consists of 1000 small tiles and glass fragments. The eight-foot pillar, set on Broadway, is decorated with 2,800 elements.

Despite all the difficulties, over the years Jim managed to restore all the mosaics, today they have become the hallmark of the East Village. Local residents consider them to be a real cultural heritage, most of the mosaics depict the events of September 11, they are dedicated to the innocent victims of this tragedy.