AskaNewYorker: What’s your name?
Liberty George: It’s Liberty George!
AskaNewYorker: What are you doing on this corner (5th Ave and 55th St)
Liberty George: On this corner I display my masks of Lady Liberty and I sell them.
AskaNewYorker: Tell us more about your Lady Liberty masks and how this idea came to you.
Liberty George: The idea came to me because I didn’t have a Green Card and to survive I came to this freedom in America and I created the Lady Liberty mask.
AskaNewYorker: How long have you been creating her?
Liberty George: From 1999 till now. Anytime, the winter, summer, I come to this corner of 5th Ave and 55th Street.
AskaNewYorker: I see here (on the display) that you were featured in Architectural Digest magazine. (see http://www.mecaproductions.com/digest/ad_feb_04.html) Tell us more about who buys your masks.
Liberty George: My last project is for the Clinton Library gift shop in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have six special projects for President Clinton.
AskaNewYorker: That’s great! Are there any shops in New York that sell your masks?
Liberty George: I displayed the masks for Architectural Digest in a big show that was in October on the 73rd floor of the Time Warner building.
AskaNewYorker: Is this your primary mode of transportation with the masks (pointing to a bicycle standing nearby)?
Liberty George: This is my “migration bike”. I put Lady Liberty in one box and I come from a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn over the Queensborough bridge to Manhattan. Sometimes when I go over the bridge with my bike I can not ride the bike because it is so windy. It’s hard to keep everything balanced…Lady Liberty, the bike, my hands. It is really amazing sometimes, the weather, but still I continue to ride the bike to my gallery here in Manhattan at 5th Ave and 55th St. I’m most happy over the bridge in my freedom spot. You see Manhattan, the sun, and you feel like you are the king. Your face is at the same level as the skyscrapers.
AskaNewYorker: You mentioned the Green Card before. How’s that coming along?
Liberty George: a couple of months ago I made a Lady Liberty immigration project for Federal Plaza and I received a Green Card.
AskaNewYorker: Art for freedom. I love it. What do you like about this particular corner?
Liberty George: This corner for me is the spirit of America. On this corner I display Lady Liberty to all the world.
AskaNewYorker: It’s prime real estate on this corner. Trump Tower is just over there. Maybe the Donald will buy a mask.
Liberty George: I have a funny story about Donald Trump. One time he came from an Italian suit store on 5th Ave and he couldn’t move his neck but he greeted Lady Liberty with his eyes. I have a funny story about Giuliani too. I bought his book on great leadership. He was at a store to do a book signing. I made a mask of Giuliani from looking at his waxy face in the book. I brought it to the book signing. I held it in my left hand. He didn’t have time to look at it. He just signed the book and asked my name. I told him “Liberty George”, but he wrote just George in the book.
AskaNewYorker: Too bad Giuliani couldn’t have acknowledged your art. Liberty George, where are you from originally?
Liberty George: I am from Bulgaria and I’ve been here for 13 years.
AskaNewYorker: What do you love most about New York?
Liberty George: I love it. My freedom! The Queensborough Bridge! That I can ride my bike to my corner here in Manhattan! Yes, this is an exciting place and people from all over the world that I talk to think so, too. I speak German, Russian, and Spanish. I have direct contact with these people. This is my dream in my life, which I cannot realize in Germany or anywhere in Europe but I do realize it in New York. I can talk a couple languages to sell my artwork and to be in touch with the greatest, free, liberty people! Money makes you not happy, but liberty makes you happy!
AskaNewYorker: We wish you a happy and healthy New Year, Liberty George! Thanks for your time!
