Saint
by numbers
This East Village
sidewalk artist paints talismans for a modern world
New
Yorkers looking for solace in the midst of the city's
various ills and temptations can now have a patron saint
customized just for them. Artist-cum-hagiologist Richard
Schachter sells saintly portraits from a sidewalk stand
in the East Village. The artist was drawn to what he calls
the "tragicomic" nature of the Roman Catholic saints,
which he first started painting three years ago, after
reading up on their legends."They are about will and not
bending to the status quo," he says. The artist says he
identifies with those attributes, since he's always been
an "outsider" as someone both Jewish and gay.
Schachter terms the style of his work—colorful
stained glass-like acrylic paints on aluminum panels—"punk
byzantine" and says he intends for the pieces to "celebrate
the Irony" of the church. That aim is evident in his vaguely
homoerotic St. John the Baptist (Patron St. of health
spas): Although the figure holds his head on a platter
and a lamb in his left arm, as is traditional, the buff
saint poses in front of a swimming pool, wearing only
a YMCA towel around his waist.
For heavy drinkers, there's St. Bibiana,
Patron St. of hangovers. There's also protection for taxi
drivers (St. Fiacre), writers (St. John the Divine),hairdressers
(St. Martin de Porres), drug addicts (St. Maximillian
Kolbe) and teenage girls (St. Agnes).
Fittingly, considering his customers
are harried city dwellers, his bestsellers are St. Dympna
(Patron St. of mental illness), pictured outside an asylum,
a jester by her side; St. Job (Patron St. of depression),
a bottle of Prozac in his outstretched palm; and St. Clare
(Patron St. of television), looking like she's lost her
mind from spending far too many hours in front of the
tube. The least popular sellers are St. Francis, Patron
St. of ecology and St. Valentine, Patron St. of love.
Although people buy the portraits largely
for fun, Schachter says some also buy them for comfort.
One woman bought St. Lucy, protectress of eyes, for a
boyfriend who was having vision troubles. She came back
a few days later to say his problem had disappeared. Hey,
whatever works...
—Katherine Burton |
