CLAYTON. - JULIAN VOLOJ

Another comic I was able to pick up on a whim; god I love the library being open. This comic is short, I was able to read it in one sitting, and focused. It is a pretty straightforward biography of the artist Clayton Patterson and an exploration of his work. I was vaguely familiar with Patterson before this, but I am interested in the LES before it was gentrified beyond imagination, specifically because it managed to be both lower class and racial diverse, a combo that is very hard to find these days. There’s a lot of NYC nostalgia for the bad old days, you can find it from Patti Smith to Bourdain, and typically I find that stuff beyond tedious. CLAYTON. manages to balance the main character's clear love for the neighborhood with interesting digressions into his artwork, most of which is based on the neighborhood. He, of course, takes photos so he has hundreds of candid street shots, mostly of 80’s-90’s gang members. The gang-member who the book focuses on, a fella named Cochise, does appear to be a Nazi, which goes unaddressed. He has more swastikas and iron crosses than is typical, even for a YT biker type, and in the “present” day he’s wearing a “Don’t Tread on Me” hat. I would have like to know more about this aspect of his gang life. Patterson was also deeply involved in the tattoo world, and instrumental in legalizing it in NYC, so he’s also got a ton of cool pictures of old tattoos, as well as some very cool tattoos himself. Patterson was also present at the Tompkins Square Police Riot and shot hours of video of the NYPD beating the shit out of people on an old camcorder. He refused to give over the tapes, since the evil NYPD would obviously “lose” them immediately, and as a result he himself had the shit kicked out of him by cops and was frequently arrested for bullshit and tortured. Normal NYPD stuff. What’s sad is how that was really the last stand against the sort of gentrification that would destroy everything interesting  and cool about NYC. I would be surprised if the protesters that night knew how right they really were. They really did replace squats and artists and working families and basically anyone who’s not a millionaire with banks and Walgreens and the world’s most boring people. This process played out in almost all major American cities during this time (late 80’s-today, basically my lifetime) but NYC (and, I’d argue, SF) was among the hardest hit and most thoroughly desiccated. The last part that really struck me has to do with hats. Patterson is famous for hand painting and embroidering baseball caps and jackets. He made some for famous folks like Mick Jagger and for regular cool people in the LES. They have a Haitian art vibe to me, lots of stylized skulls and bones and sweeping, symmetrical line work. He claims that he basically made the baseball hat popular as an everyday wear item, and I have no idea if this is true. What resonates with me is the fact that Supreme recently released a line of clothing based on his artwork, including hats and jackets embroidered with his designs. No longer do you have to be in the know and travel down to a shady neighborhood and speak with Patterson, who was making it all himself, in person to get these hats, you can order them online from a supplier who is getting the hats made at slave-wages in Asia. Supreme is a good lens through which to view the commercialization of street art and graffiti culture and skate culture and general low-life NYC culture and having the artwork of the LES’s most famous documentarian is a fitting symbol of the decline of a once vital neighborhood. Patterson himself has moved, I believe he lives in Austria now and I’m sure his old storefront/apartment is a bank. Nice short little read about a guy I didn’t know a ton about. I’d like to know more about the LES squat scene (home of the famous C-Squat) during this time. Does anyone know the best book for that? 1979 custom hats