I am not going to render an opinion here on Sir Shadow’s art, but I will report that it is certainly a phenomenon. After gleaning his website, I see that he is on the road to becoming a one man industry. As I have written here before, it is always so surprising how one can be unaware of people, places or things in this city which are virtual institutions, in many cases having had major news coverage such as articles in the New York Times. A good example of this is Joe Ades, the Gentleman Peeler, a character who has based himself in Union Square and about whom I have previously posted – see here.

New York City has the population density, diversity and tolerance to embrace and nurture any self promoter who has good schtick and chutzpah. Self-confidence in tandem with a creative mind will permit virtually any endeavor to become a potential success – there are always patrons to be had, even with the most bizarre products or services. This city is a cauldron, always brewing soups with unconventional unique ingredients.

I was amazed at Sir Shadow’s fluidity. He is a master of the flow (part of his tag line) and improvisational poetry, describing his work as The One Line Art & Flowetry of Sir Shadow. He creates highly stylized line drawings in one continuous movement, never lifting the pen. A drawing in his signature silver ink is completed in a minute or two. See more photos here.

Although I imagine art snobs may turn their noses at such a commercial endeavor, this man has created his own business. He has a website, blog, online shop, a book, a fan club, youtube videos and a myspace site. A master of self promotion, Sir Shadow is now offering $1 million dollars to anyone who helps him earn $2 million …

Bowery Artist Asks For Help To Make It Big
June 16, 2008

A Lower East Side artist is making a million-dollar offer to anyone who can help him make it to the big time. NY1’s Cheryl Wills filed the following report on artist Sir Shadow, which aired on NY1 News June 16th 2008.

He calls himself “Sir Shadow,” and if you watch carefully, you’ll see his trademark one line art: his silver pen never leaves the page as he draws a wiry x-piece jazz band on his lap. He calls it Flowetry.

“They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so I’m really writing my thoughts of staying strong and be about something and have a purpose in life,” said Sir Shadow.

A true New Yorker, Sir Shadow does things his way and after 30 years of perfecting his style, he says ready to take his game to the next level. And his fellow New Yorkers are suddenly taking notice. His work now hangs in various restaurants and office buildings around the city.

“It’s not about me, as much as it is about when I do bring the work to the world that it will be efficient, significant and someone will get something out of it,” he said.

His latest gimmick is attracting lots of attention. He’s offering one-million dollars to the person or group that helps him make his first couple of million bucks.

“Basically I want to be able to give a million dollars away to someone who took time out to see the dream and help bring it about,” said Sir Shadow.

A tiny storefront adjacent to the “White House”, in the Bowery, showcases his work. Some people buy; others are encouraged to leave a comment. And the artist, from the school of hard knocks, prizes every note, patiently waiting for the one that will be his ticket to the big time.

To learn more about the artist, check out www.sirshadow.com.

- Cheryl Wills

For full article with video, Click the link below;
New York 1 – Full Sir Shadow Article

New York Times: Bowery

THE ARTIST IN SEARCH OF A PATRON

By SUZANNE LABARRE

“It develops itself,” Sir Shadow says of his one-line method. “You feed it with action, and it starts developing feet, legs and it starts walking.”

Published: June 1, 2008

THE only bright spot on the Bowery at Great Jones Street that rainy evening was a halogen-lit storefront packed floor to ceiling with ink studies of jazz musicians, dancers and slinky nudes.

Behind the window, a tall, hulking figure wearing a dark, double-breasted suit befitting Sunday Mass slouched over a sketch pad. Pressing the point of his silver pen onto the page, he looped it around a couple of times, sloped down toward a corner and moved it back up, forming a long, inverted bell. Less than a minute later, the artist flashed his finished work, which had been completed in a single stroke: a wiry three-piece band, the instruments melded seamlessly into limbs, hands and heads.

With these motions, the Lower East Side artist who calls himself Sir Shadow hopes to make millions.  Sir Shadow recently offered to pay $1 million to the person who helps him earn his first $2 million. “The Third Million I Make Is Yours,” says a flier affixed to the door of his 200-square-foot art gallery adjoining the Whitehouse, a shabby youth hostel-cum-flophouse that sits opposite the gleaming new Bowery Hotel.

The reward, continues the flier, is open to “anyone, any team, any group, or any corporation who can help take my art to the next level.”  “I would like to see my one-line art on pillowcases, sheets, towels, merchandise, leather jackets, silks, dishware, clothing line, jewelry, animation, neon, and any other capital venture.”

On a recent afternoon, Sir Shadow parked his long limbs on a wooden bench at Think Coffee and talked about the changing face of a neighborhood once home primarily to the down and out.  “There’s no soul, no touch,” he said. “There’s people looking at you like, ‘Where you come from?’ I’m like: ‘Where y’all come from? Y’all just moved to my neighborhood.’ ”

He never went to art school, having learned the single-line technique simply through repetition.  “It develops itself,” he says. “You feed it with action, and it starts developing feet, legs and it starts walking. The next thing you know, people calling you an artist.”

Sir Shadow has been producing these drawings for three decades, but his gallery in the Whitehouse was born 15 months ago, when Meyer Muschel, then the building’s owner, abandoned plans to convert part of the hotel’s ground floor space into a cafe, and instead handed it over to Sir Shadow rent-free. “My accommodation to him,” said Mr. Muschel, who sold the building last June, but handles day-to-day operations and keeps a calendar illustrated with Sir Shadow’s drawings in his office.

Despite the exposure Sir Shadow gets from the gallery, his $1 million offer remains unclaimed.

“People came and said they down,” he said. “They say they got this new person, that middleman or something. And for some reason, nothing’s happening. The universe is at a standstill.”

For original full article in the New York Times Bowery Section, click the link below;

New York Times – Sir Shadow Article

The giant man speaks in a high pitched voice that makes you flinch for all it’s surprising raspiness, like the sounds a teenage boy might make. Why is his voice so sour and stunted? Has he eaten too many citrus fruits?

One girl tells Shadow she is studying education. No hesitation. Shadow is preaching, letting whatever words enter his mind exit through his mouth without any thought except rhythmic continuity.

“You don’t go to school for education. You’ve got to Be a teacher. You can’t go to school to learn that. You got to be that now and always. What do you teach? What are you teaching me right now?”

In unplanned, organic order, the Ottawans take turns at Shadow’s table. Sometimes he is asking them about his art – which drawings do they like, why, rank the art, 1st, 2nd, 3rd – and sometimes he is bending their heads around a corner they hadn’t imagined. He sits, a little slumped, encouraging his more reticent guests with a nodding head and an occasional, “Um hmm,” or, “Oh yeah? Really?” And he sounds surprised when he says these things.

Read the rest of this blog entry of a Sir Shadow experience and perspective here;
Moosecrossing at Blogspot ~ Serenity