Ronnie GiesW 63rd Street east of West End AveHeart Three · Location 252 · Drawn March 2003Hover over or select the image to reveal a hidden view.PhotographsDownload photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Video podcast0:00On the northeast corner of West End Avenue and West 63rd Street is a fire hydrant.0:07The fire hydrant faces away from a patch of wall right on the corner of 88 West End.0:13Right on that corner is where our drawing was made, standing and facing onto 63rd Street.0:21The drawing has metal to the right of it and below it in the form of a grate with metal spikes on top of it in front of a window.0:30and a metal grate covering an opening in the sidewalk below it.0:34This is Ronnie Gies.0:36He was drawn in March of 2003.0:40His drawing is counting five people.0:44With the freedom and confidence of having been given a thumbs-up0:47from the local police officers,0:49the built-in anxiety of drawing is lifted for a moment.0:53I once went to a public arts conference0:56where we heard the plans of a major southwest city to fight their graffiti problem.1:01It seems that they had a million dollars budgeted to fix this dilemma.1:06They said that they had made the decision to spend the entire thing on a machine that could not only erase graffiti marks,1:12but repaint the surface that the marks were on to match their surroundings.1:16A million bucks.1:19It seems to me that if that money was budgeted for a decade to create a dozen or so public art mural teaching squads1:26that bridge the gap between the youth culture, corporate advertisers, the police, and local artists, things would be a lot better.1:35In fact, I would go as far as to say that I believe that the quality of life would improve greatly in that city.1:42While we are drawing this figure, I could feel hints of what the ramifications of such a project could be.1:50It was not so much the destruction that upset firefighter Ronnie E. Gies, 43 of Squad 288 in Maspeth, Queens,1:59but the fact that he was suddenly the recipient of favors and goodwill from neighbors instead of being the benefactor.2:05It was very difficult for him to be receiving and not giving, said his wife Carol.2:10Someone would call at 3 in the morning because their toilet was clogged and Ronnie was there.2:15Luckily, he was also a carpenter.2:18With a little help and six months, he built the family a new home.← Location 251Heart Three · Location 252Location 253 →
