Tag Archives: street art

Samuel Mark, Bedbug Artist

This snapshot I took of a bedbug-adorned mattress on St. Mark’s St. has an artist: Samuel Mark, who has apparently done several bedbug-inspired pieces. He was profiled in a Wall Street Journal blog:

M: You scavenge materials on the street. Are you concerned they have bedbugs?

M: I actually look at pieces before I touch them. I know what bedbugs look like. I had bedbugs in Brooklyn and I was in a place where they were in the whole building. They congregate in different places and come out at certain times. The times of night I write on these things is the time they are out. I look at all the creases. If I see any evidence of bedbugs on the thing, I do not touch it. And I wear rubber gloves.

h/t EV Grieve

Bedbugs Mattress Art on St. Marks Place

Saw this a few days ago on St. Marks and sent it out to EV Grieve, who was kind enough to link to the Flickr. Curbed NY and ScoutMob (who didn’t credit EVG or me, but I’ll let it pass, because of their yummy deals) also posted the photo. You can’t underestimate our fascination with bedbugs…New York has been under terror alert with the news that some of our greatest American icons, Victoria Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, have succumbed to the evil bugs.

I blame the heightened fear on this well-written, terrifying New York magazine piece by Marshall Sella…I didn’t even know bedbugs were that bad until I read this. Now I will never sleep outside of my hyperbaric chamber again.

Update: The WSJ profiles the artist, a “Samuel Mark