During the 2006 Democratic Primary season in Brooklyn (a hotly contested fight in a place where few Republicans do well leading to the idea that through most of Brooklyn Democrats could run a sponge cake and still beat Republicans) I met a gentleman named Bill Batson.

The very first time I met him, he discussed contriversial issues that my wife and I had skirted, but had yet to publicly discuss. I rapidly became a supporter in his (ultimately unsuccessful) run for Assembly, but I also came to see him as an example of what I call a "community candidate," a political candidate who comes from a background of community activism and participation. Bill's opponents tried to portray him as a lightweight, a nobody. This was grossly unfair to a man who had served his community for years. He was the New York State Senate Democratic Leader David A. Paterson’s Director of Community Relations, the chair and Co-Founder of ACRES, (American Civil Rights Education Services), has worked at The Coalition for the Homeless, 1199 SEIU and the New York Civil Liberties Union, was campaign manager for Norman Siegel's campaign for Public Advocate, served as a mediator between a public sector union and a non-profit health care company, facilitating the end of a nine-month dispute, and has served as a member of Community Planning Board 8, co-chairing the Fire Safety committee and the special sub-committee on the Environmental Impact of Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Development. All of this he brought into politics when he decided to throw his hat into the ring. His failed bid for Assembly came because he ran as a grassroots candidate against big money and development interests. But he has not given up activism.

Most recently Bill helped organize the March for Justice in NYC protesting police brutality against blacks. My wife and I attended that rally and we actually saw Bill there, but weren't sure it was him, so didn't go up and talk to him. Coincidentally, we did go to an art show of Bill's the very next day. Yes...that's right. Bill Batson is also an artist. More of that later.

Bill discussed the March for Justice and by any measure the march was a success. With about a week's planning and a few thousands of dollars in cash, the march drew 40,000 people yet went off as smoothly as could be despite high tensions between marchers and the police. The organizers, Bill among them, deserve considerable credit for this. Bill discussed the importance of getting SEIU and UFT on board with the march, making it much harder for Bloomberg and the police to dismiss it as just another Al Sharpton stunt. The march, which also included groups like Democracy for NYC, the NAACP and Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, was about community and justice...not about personalities like Al Sharpton. And for that reason, the march was a success and more than likely made a strong impression on the city government.

As to Bill's art, it is excellent in its ability to capture an expressionist shapshot of people. Mostly, his art, much like his politics, is all about people. And seldom is it about people in the abstract, but rather about people as extremely unique individuals. My beef with communism has always been that the vaunted "people" become nothing more than an abstract icon to communist ideology, forgetting that within the "people" are a myriad of very different individuals. Bill Batson, when I see both his art and his politics, seems to get both the individual and the collective/community aspects to what people are all about.

Most of Bill's sketches are of people on the subway. In 2005 he had an exhibition of these "subway people," but these kinds of sketches also were prevalent in his more recent show. The sketches are almost caricature, but not quite. Instead they settle something almost like deja vu: an expressionistic glimpse of a moment in someone's life...and that moment seems strikingly familiar to anyone riding the NYC subways. My wife and I were talking with a woman at the exhibit and we all agreed that everyone drawn looked oddly familiar as if we had seen them, and we almost expected to see ourselves up there on the wall somewhere.

My wife and I bought three pieces.

My wife particularly liked one such "subway sketch" of a woman who clearly caught Bill's eye and imagination.

Another piece that struck both my wife and myself was a great perspective view through a subway station down a tunnel. Skillfully done it is a wonderful contrast of the world of people (the station) and the dark subway tunnel that all of us in NYC travel down but seldom pay much attention to. (The stain on the picture seems to have happened as we transported the picture after buying it...pity! We came unprepared to transport art).

Finally, the piece that was most striking to me (within our price range, that is!) was a drawing of Nelson Mandela's last appearance at the Riverside church where he gave his "Prisons of Poverty" speech. Mandela is there in the background of Bill's sketch, but barely noticeable. Rather the back of an audience member's head is the focal point from which the church architecture rises up, pulling our eyes up with it. This one could have been turned into a much larger piece without losing its effectiveness. Even as a small sketch it is highly effective in its use of line and space.

Bill will not be fading from the Brooklyn political scene. He and I were talking about ways to keep the local progressives together perhaps on a monthly basis. Stay tuned.

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