If you've spent much time walking along the sidewalk in North Brooklyn with your eyes cast downward, there's a good chance you've seen Paul Richard's handiwork.
He creates portraits using what appears to be tar. At first glance they just look like any other tar-like substance on the sidewalk (old chewing gum, trash, and whatever else it is that creates small dark marks on the sidewalk). But upon a closer inspection, they're clearly patterned works of art that are deliberately placed there by a well-known painter and performance artist who defies labels. Most of the sidewalk tar paintings appear to be self-portraits.