John HeffernanCentral Park between E 83rd St and E 84th StHeart Three · Location 294 · Drawn July 2004Hover over or select the image to reveal a hidden view.PhotographsDownload photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Video podcast0:00The location for this drawing is in Central Park.0:03The drawing was on a patch of grass east of the 3 o'clock position of the walkway surrounding the Great Lawn.0:10At the 3 o'clock position, you see a set of three long benches and four decorative lamps between two paths.0:17Facing to the east, at the northern end of these benches and lamps,0:22is a path that is labeled, No Bike Riding on Pathways, curving off to the east.0:27That path and the main pathway have a curving frame on a plot of grass and in the wintertime0:36we carved this fireman out of the light layer of snow that had accumulated there.0:42This is John Heffernan. He was drawn in December of 2001. His drawing is counting ten people.0:53This particular drawing of John Heffernan was made during the first big snowfall in Manhattan after September 11th, 2001.1:01He is also the first person that I drew in Central Park.1:05I entered the park to start to figure out the logistics of drawing in a place that does not have many walls.1:11A best friend and I scouted out the imaginary heart line and found that most of it had been fenced off for the winter.1:18This will also be the first drawing that is done on the ground.1:21Using my bare fingertips, I dug John Heffernan’s outline out of the frozen snow.1:27Then his hands became my hands, and in this blurred moment, I counted the ten people he is counting.1:33I pressed my hands at the end of his fireman's jacket and melted the outline of my palms and fingers into the snow.1:41With the hands clearly defined, I scraped away what was left of the snow to expose the bare winter earth below.1:47low. Central Park appeared before me as a desert of white with only one oasis, a portrait of a man1:55and the memories that he counts. John Heffernan was a man with many sides. One moment he was in2:02a firefighter's uniform rushing into burning buildings to save lives at the risk of his own.2:07In the next, he was on stage in a black t-shirt and jeans playing rhythm guitar in a punk rock2:13band, the bullies that he helped found.← Location 293Heart Three · Location 294Location 295 →
