Someone has graced the Upper East Side (and who knows, they may be in other neighborhoods, too!) with these things. We've been calling them "angel tiles" for lack of a better term. They're small, maybe 2" x 3". Hand-painted in candy colors, on what seem to be glass tiles. And we're not even sure they're angels; they could be little super-heroes or cartoon characters. They're mostly on trees, but we've found them on emergency call boxes and a private residence. Reminiscent of the artist James De Da Vega's sidewalk chalk pictures or those little hairy jumping beans painted on East Village sidewalks. It was always a little thrilling to discover one.
We first noticed a pair settled underneath stone lions flanking the entrance of a posh residence on East 80th Street at Fifth
Avenue. I was always amazed to see them still there - if you owned a bazillion-dollar townhouse, you might remove them, no? I secretly love the owner of that place - that person has a sense of humor!
Now, for the past few weeks, we've been finding them everywhere. We can't decide if they're new installations or if we're only finding them because we know they exist and we keep our eyes peeled now.
I've pointed out the angel tiles to a few neighbors, and they're always astonished that they haven't noticed them before.
If anyone knows ANYTHING about th
em, please e-mail and spill it!
Photos by Abigail and Annika.
