Art Attack

"They didn't like the content," he says. "Mine was a 3-D plastic image of Johnny Rotten, with fluorescent colors." Feeling misjudged, he and Bender took their outcast creativity to the flea market, beginning one part of Jensen's mission: "To show work no one else would. I don't go out of my way to shock. Sometimes it's just street art. It's not necessarily political, like about Washington, D.C."

His work hasn't really changed since his flea market days. He still means to provoke reactions -- his most recent effort through a show titled You Are Retarded, which included a work adorned with the phrase "You have shit for brains, and that's giving you more credit than you deserve."

"It had nothing to do with anyone being retarded," Jensen explains. Instead, the concept was an attempt to challenge the audience -- even people who were sympathetic or were already fans -- often employing large doses of sarcasm. "Everyone deserves some," he proclaims. "People have gotten too calm, too passive, accepting whatever crap is thrown at them in music, art and film. Dare to be different; don't dare to be dull."

Whether or not that message is too daring, he finds that an increasing number of young customers are coming into the store. "It's refreshing for them to hear an alternative view, something they're not getting on TV or in school. I'm giving them an introduction into art or music they might not have known about."

He's teaching life lessons right on Broadway -- "a window on the best circus in the world" -- from where he can continue to observe. To agitate. To paint. "As long as I can hold a paintbrush," he says, then corrects himself. "Nah. I'd find another way to sling paint." And insults.