Posted inArt

Why Won’t the MTA Allow This Artist to Make Art? [UPDATE]

One February evening, Brooklyn-based artist Enrico Miguel Thomas carried his drawing board a few paces away from where he had been illustrating from a counter in Grand Central — leaving behind a bag full of markers and a folded-up easel. After a brief moment of gathering the necessary detail on his subject, which he characterizes as having taken no longer than five minutes, he turned to find a swarm of police officers gathering near his bags. After approaching them, claiming the bags, and identifying himself as an artist, the MTA police officers insisted on “clearing” his bags with a K-9 bomb-sniffing dog.