About the artist:

Robert Lederman has been very vocal about the rights of art vendors selling goods in SoHo. He founded A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) in 1993 in order to fight the "legal and political struggle for full First Amendment protection involving the creation, display and sale of art on NYC streets and in Parks." The Brooklyn-born Mr. Lederman was 12 when he sold his first art, portraits of movie stars, outside Dubrow's deli on Kings Highway; he used the proceeds to buy monster movies on 8-millimeter film (he wanted to be a director). His father, Paul, was a commercial artist whose unsigned work appeared everywhere from cigarette ads to Elvis posters; when Mr. Lederman left home at 17 to be a street artist, his father disapproved.