A avenue artist identified for drawing chalk hearts on New York Metropolis’s sidewalks died after he jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, mates advised The Publish.
Hash Halper, 41, was an old-school Massive Apple bohemian carrying on a downtown pop artwork custom together with his hearts of varied sizes and colours, his pal Sarah Frances stated.
“He actually simply wished to unfold the message of affection,” she stated, calling Halper’s loss of life a horrible loss for town.
“His soul was in spreading optimistic vitality and love, which is why this can be a tragedy.”
Frances’ sister, Michelle Rose, stated the hearts had been like Halper “stamping his magnetic attraction” across the metropolis. It was no accident he used chalk for the hearts as a result of it was childlike — and he knew nothing lasted or stayed the identical, she stated.
“Everybody felt like they had been stumbling into one thing that was whimsical but additionally one thing that moved round and was by no means the identical and would disappear,” Rose stated.
Halper began drawing the hearts in 2014, when he labored at Kossar’s Bagels & Bialys on the Decrease East Facet.
“The explanation I began drawing hearts everywhere in the metropolis is as a result of I fell in love with a girl,” he advised The New York Instances in a 2018 interview.
“I wished to infuse that romance into town.”
Halper grew up in a contemporary Orthodox household and stated in a 2019 Medium interview that he had at all times had an affinity for chalk.
“In class, even in faculty, I’d elevate my hand to go up the board to put in writing in chalk,” he stated.
Chalk and a canvas of sidewalk additionally stored him out of cuffs.
Though the artist had been arrested for graffiti a couple of occasions, mates stated.
His sidewalk artwork additionally drew questions from cops, in accordance with the Instances. That made him interact in dialogue with the officers about their emotional wellbeing.
“‘Why are you so upset a few coronary heart?’” he stated, in accordance with the Instances.
Halper, on his New York Romantic Instagram web page, had posted messages towards anti-Semitism. His final solo present was Thursday, the day earlier than his loss of life, posts on the web page confirmed.
