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Within every human heart, there glows a kindle spark of the stuff that art is made of.
Each of us — aesthete or brute, learned or unschooled, outdoorsman or agoraphobe — has the capacity to be transformed, transported and transfixed by the power of artistic expression. It is as essential to the human identity as our need to breathe, our capacity for thought and our tendency to sin.
If you doubt it, then consider the case of the Artistic Cop.
Police officers have had, for many years, something of a PR problem. Many civilians give short shrift to the notion of a soul behind the badge — instead painting cops with a wide, wide brush as violent and thoughtless plebes, more interested in firearms than fine arts and privileging cudgels over culture.
But the rap sheet shows that art and police work make affectionate — if odd — bedfellows.
Craven had reason to consider the Artistic Cop earlier this week, when he wrote a short profile of Pete Morisi for his blog at cravenlovelace.com. Unless you’re into comic books, you won’t have heard of Morisi; in fact, you’d have to be a somewhat obsessive collector with an interest in obscure Silver Age titles to know his work. But Morisi’s life was an interesting one, not the least for the fact that he spent his nights drawing superheroes like “Peter Cannon — Thunderbolt” after a full day walking a beat through Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Morisi died in 2003, but modern digital comics artist Daniel Scott Gabriel Murray has followed in his footsteps, working as a cop in Gardiner, Maine, while churning out actionscapes for the likes of DC Comics and Lucasfilm.
There have been many police officers who have become actors over the years. Perhaps the best-known is Dennis Farina, who claims he was such a bad shot as a Chicago policeman that his fellow officers nicknamed him “the Great Wounder” before he rose to fame in the 1980s as an actor in Michael Mann’s cult TV series “Crime Story.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, police officers-turned-thespians often portray either cops or criminals. David Zayas is known today for playing the loveable Miami cop Angel Batista on Showtime’s “Dexter,” but before that, he turned in an incendiary performance as the frightening Enrique Morales on HBO’s “Oz” while still patrolling the Times Square area as a member of the NYPD. And cop-turned-actor Robert Z’Dar, a man whose gargantuan chin makes Jay Leno’s look puny in comparison, managed to combine police officer and psychopath in the title role of 1988’s “Maniac Cop.”
There are even policemen turned poets. Just ask Las Vegas cop Harry Fagel, who has drawn on his law enforcement experiences in books of free verse poetry like “Undercover” and “Street Talk.”
Of course, there have also been police officers who have made their mark in the world of popular music. Next week, we’ll review the careers of some of the great cops gone pop.
And by the way — KAFM’s semi-annual Pledge Drive ends tomorrow. I hope the kindle spark within your own heart has inspired you to support this amazing community asset.
Notes is supported by the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, promoting the success of after-school programs throughout Colorado in cooperation with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Notes can be heard daily on KAFM 88.1 or at kafmradio.org on the Web.
Each of us — aesthete or brute, learned or unschooled, outdoorsman or agoraphobe — has the capacity to be transformed, transported and transfixed by the power of artistic expression. It is as essential to the human identity as our need to breathe, our capacity for thought and our tendency to sin.
If you doubt it, then consider the case of the Artistic Cop.
Police officers have had, for many years, something of a PR problem. Many civilians give short shrift to the notion of a soul behind the badge — instead painting cops with a wide, wide brush as violent and thoughtless plebes, more interested in firearms than fine arts and privileging cudgels over culture.
But the rap sheet shows that art and police work make affectionate — if odd — bedfellows.
Craven had reason to consider the Artistic Cop earlier this week, when he wrote a short profile of Pete Morisi for his blog at cravenlovelace.com. Unless you’re into comic books, you won’t have heard of Morisi; in fact, you’d have to be a somewhat obsessive collector with an interest in obscure Silver Age titles to know his work. But Morisi’s life was an interesting one, not the least for the fact that he spent his nights drawing superheroes like “Peter Cannon — Thunderbolt” after a full day walking a beat through Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Morisi died in 2003, but modern digital comics artist Daniel Scott Gabriel Murray has followed in his footsteps, working as a cop in Gardiner, Maine, while churning out actionscapes for the likes of DC Comics and Lucasfilm.
There have been many police officers who have become actors over the years. Perhaps the best-known is Dennis Farina, who claims he was such a bad shot as a Chicago policeman that his fellow officers nicknamed him “the Great Wounder” before he rose to fame in the 1980s as an actor in Michael Mann’s cult TV series “Crime Story.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, police officers-turned-thespians often portray either cops or criminals. David Zayas is known today for playing the loveable Miami cop Angel Batista on Showtime’s “Dexter,” but before that, he turned in an incendiary performance as the frightening Enrique Morales on HBO’s “Oz” while still patrolling the Times Square area as a member of the NYPD. And cop-turned-actor Robert Z’Dar, a man whose gargantuan chin makes Jay Leno’s look puny in comparison, managed to combine police officer and psychopath in the title role of 1988’s “Maniac Cop.”
There are even policemen turned poets. Just ask Las Vegas cop Harry Fagel, who has drawn on his law enforcement experiences in books of free verse poetry like “Undercover” and “Street Talk.”
Of course, there have also been police officers who have made their mark in the world of popular music. Next week, we’ll review the careers of some of the great cops gone pop.
And by the way — KAFM’s semi-annual Pledge Drive ends tomorrow. I hope the kindle spark within your own heart has inspired you to support this amazing community asset.
Notes is supported by the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, promoting the success of after-school programs throughout Colorado in cooperation with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Notes can be heard daily on KAFM 88.1 or at kafmradio.org on the Web.
