PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
East Village artist uses work to give back
series of apartments that always found him “circling
around Tompkins Square Park.” He explains that “the
heart and energy of the East Village still exists. I open
my door and there it is – young, old, gay, straight. I still
love it here.” His enthusiasm comes shining through in
his cartoons, the very amusing ‘NYSee’ series which
is inspired by things seen and heard in the streets of
Manhattan, and are featured regularly in EVGrieve as
Grant Shaffer focuses in.
Grant Shaffer at work in his East Village Studio.
BY BOB KRASNER
When Grant Shaffer was just fi ve years old, his
obsession with “The Flying Nun” (go ahead
kids, Google it – we’ll wait) became the fi rst
step in a long and varied career. He did not go into
aviation or a convent, however, as his depiction of the
popular TV character won an art contest and became
his fi rst printed piece, in a local newspaper.
“I’ve always been an artist,” Shaffer muses. “I’ve never
thought of doing anything else.”
His mom, a painter and his dad, a stockbroker made
sure that he had “all the art supplies that I wanted” and
by the time he was in college he was doing drawings
commercially for local stores as well as some advertising
work. A very wonderful art school teacher then
introduced him to something he was unaware of, the
craft of storyboarding (a sequence of drawings which
represent the shots planned for a movie, television or
video production).
His fi rst job in that genre was the movie “Species,”
which led to widely admired projects such as “Zoolander,”
“Angels in America” and videos by Madonna
and Beyonce. His most recent project is the upcoming
Lin-Manuel Miranda fi lm ‘Tick, Tick…… Boom!” (And
that’s all that he’s willing to share about that!)
Shaffer has lived in NYC for the past 26 years, in a
well as having been showcased on the LinkNYC kiosks.
In addition to that he is teaching at SVA and the Hetrick-
Martin Institute as well as contributing to the New
York Times, the New Yorker, Interview Magazine and
Graydon Carter’s digital weekly found at AirMail.news.
We should also mention the three children’s books that
he has illustrated and his enthusiasm for photography
while wondering how he fi nds time to walk his rescue
pups, Jerry and Lala.
Somewhere in there, he managed to paint a mural for
his husband’s nightspot, Club Cumming, which led to a
collaboration with Rock Soup, a small clothing company
that specializes in limited-edition collaborations with a
variety of artists who are encouraged to donate a portion
of their profi ts to the charity of their choice, as Rock
Soup does. After fi nding success reproducing Shaffer’s
mural as a matching shirt/pants set, the company’s cofounder,
Joshua Joyce, approached Shaffer about doing
another project. Shaffer suggested they use his “Trans
Power” design, which had been fi rst produced as wallpaper
by Voutsa (and is still available there).
The drawings, which depict transgender heroes past
and present, are now wearable as a matching shirt and
pajama bottoms. Featuring trans heroes and icons such
as Sylvia Rivera, Lucy Hicks Anderson, Rita Hester,
Christine Jorgensen, Marsha P. Johnson, Venus Xtravaganza
and Justin Vivian Bond, the set is a limited edition
which is already selling fast. Bond is “honored to be
included and, knowing how young most of the others
who are featured were when they died, I’m grateful to
still be alive to enjoy them!”
Continuing, Bond mentions that, “I literally sleep
better surrounded by the spirits of the courageous
tran-cestors who came before me and fought so hard
for our rights.”
Not content to donate just a portion of the profi ts to
charity, Shaffer is giving all proceeds to the Hetrick-
Martin Institute, an organization dedicated to “helping
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning
(LGBTQ) youth between the ages of 13 and 24 reach
their full potential,” according to Annalee Fannan, the
Coordinator of Community Engagement and Communications
at HMI. Rock Soup is also donating its profi ts
to HMI, an organization that Shaffer has supported for
years.
“Grant has been a strong advocate for the well-being
of our LGBTQ+ young people and the community itself
for many years now,” Fannan states. “He has devoted
much of his time to working with our youth, helping
them develop their craft and encouraging them to embrace
who they are. We are largely indebted to Grant for
his contributions to HMI both academically and through
his continued support through countless donations personally
and professionally via his beautiful art.”
You can fi nd plenty of Grant Shaffer’s work atgrantshaffer.
com and his two Instagram accounts, @granteepants
and @nyseecomic. The Trans Power apparel is
available at rocksoup.net
Grant Shaffer focuses in.
10 August 26, 2021 Schneps Media
/rocksoup.net
