Mugging Victim Now Obsessed With Shadows, Gets Gallery Commissions

A benign Travis Bickle? A less destructive Bernard Goetz? No, it’s a post-traumatically stressed former graffiti artist who has become obsessed with shadows:

On the streets of Brooklyn, stray bursts of color have been dotting the urban landscape, fleeting works of art that are impossible not to notice.

The chalk outlines – often of street fixtures such as fire hydrants, lamps or even buildings – are mysteriously signed “Ellis G. 2006.”

“My art has always been in the street,” said Ellis Gallagher, a former graffiti artist, as he surveyed a just-finished hot pink tracing of a lamppost with traffic box and street signage on the corner of Smith and Dean Sts.

He followed the arc of the street lamp into the street, darting into traffic and squatting barely a foot away from slow-moving cars.

“It’s temporal. And temporary,” the artist said, as cars tread over the pink lines.

Within minutes of completing a piece, the sun has moved the shadows. People can’t tell how much time has passed since the work was finished.

Gallagher’s artistic inspiration, however, sprang from a traumatic event.

Coming home late one night last month, Gallagher spotted a man lurking a block from his house. The man turned up his hood to cover his face, a sign Gallagher knew meant trouble.

As Gallagher fumbled for his keys, he saw the man’s shadow flicker across his front door. The man, wielding a 2-foot machete, demanded money.

Police caught the mugger that same night, but Gallagher was still rattled. He became nervous and jumpy, often reliving the moment when the thief’s shadow merged with his own.

“I became fixated with shadows,” he said.

Now he spends several hours each day and night on his shadow art, stopping only for work or sleep. He prefers late afternoon shadows that extend far down the street.

His work will be on display at Smith Street’s Apartment 138 until September 20, 2005.