Paul MartiniRiverside Dr between W 112th St and W 113th StHeart Four · Location 397 · Drawn July 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Download photograph 9Download photograph 10Download photograph 11Download photograph 12Download photograph 13Download photograph 14Download photograph 15Download photograph 16Download photograph 17Download photograph 18Download photograph 19Show all 19 photographsVideo podcast0:00At the far west end of West 112th Street on Riverside Drive is a statue of Samuel Tilden.0:08This larger-than-life figure of attorney and public servant is sculpted in browns0:12and housed upon a tall rectangular stone base.0:17The backside of this base faces down West 112th Street towards the cathedral,0:23and our green tape was applied to these swarming colors of salmon, black, and reflective mica pieces.0:31This is Lieutenant Paul Martini.0:35He was drawn in July of 2004.0:39His drawing is counting one person.0:42I was drawing on this monument, and the one funny story that happened,0:46first off, it's like a really fantastic space,0:48and second off to like claim this little patch of rock underneath this0:53gargantuan bronze is like my artistic space is a funny enough thing to be0:58doing and humbling and thrilling and I was working on the drawing and was1:05stopped by a youngish woman who took an interest in what I was doing an unusual1:10degree of interest in what I was doing and didn't necessarily use it as a1:14platform to be telling her own story but she took a couple of pictures and we1:18We were taking our pictures and towards the end of our interaction she informed me that1:22she worked for the keepers of this space.1:28She could have been in some authoritarian position or concerned about what I was doing.1:34It was really wonderful to have somebody who's invested in the keeping of this area to be1:40psyched that somebody was taking the time to do some considerate public art there.1:44The flip side of that is we had the experience of drawing on a piece of public sculpture1:50downtown near City Hall and basically not being allowed to photograph.1:56[unclear] one?1:57The big red one?1:58Oh yeah.1:59Yeah, it's just being told not to photograph it because of its location.2:05The drawing was done.2:06We had worked so quickly that they got to us after the drawing had already been made.2:09and we ended up in this really weird base where there's three or four of us standing around with2:17cameras and a police officer standing right there also saying you can't document. We're like,2:24oh dear. So our pictures that we did take are not as good as they could have been.2:33Why? Because you were standing around surreptitiously like shooting from the hip?2:39Lieutenant Paul Martini was born to be a fireman.2:42His father, Joseph, had put in 33 years in the New York City Fire Department.2:47He was so good-hearted, he would do anything for you, his mother Mary.2:52Don't sweat the small things, he was always saying that, whenever anyone got frazzled over something minor.← Location 396Heart Four · Location 397Location 398 →
