NEW YORK – In January, the New York City street art community lost Jef Campion, aka Army of One, a firefighter and 9/11 first responder turned artist. I knew his work best for its frequent use of a Diane Arbus image, Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962), which Campion incorporated a series of anti-war wheat pastes.

The boy’s silhouette is superimposed onto doorways or walls already covered over with ads, concert posters, or other graffiti. The boy is a black and white visit from the past, coming out of the chaos underneath. His skinny body and tilted head making him look like a scared lost puppy, gripping the toy grenade like a security blanket.

The grenade often has red spray paint over it, like blood, like maybe the grenade wasn’t a toy and playtime went wrong and he hurt himself. “Army of One” is often scrawled next to the wheat pasted figure, like a secret call to arms. The version I often visited on an East Houston Street doorway had “Give Peace a Chance” written over the photo in bright red paint. Doorways were an especially ominous location for the piece, the red and the boy’s eyes paint a sign of violence lurking just behind them.

Campion was an avid anti-war activist, and used his work as a way to draw attention to how war hurts those who have the smallest stake – if any at all – in the conflict, like children. I felt almost silly covering Campion’s loss so long after it happened, but I went to visit the aforementioned doorway recently, and the boy was gone.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE