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He wants to assure you he wasn’t the one who put the mattresses there.
When asked point-blank if he was the artist behind a mattress painted with the words “Just Keep Going” and smiling faces, one of several mattresses reported to 311 for removal, artist Nick Shea hesitated.
“I don’t know, should I?” he joked.
Shea said he knew someone had filed a 311 complaint about the mattresses and didn’t want to claim the work if people hated it.
But yes, the mattress was his artwork, as evidenced by a post on his Instagram.
“I do it because these things are just sitting, and they look gross and annoying,” Shea said Friday. “So I’m like, what if I draw something on? At least people can look at it.”
Shea, who made a name for himself in 2022 by offering $1 portraits on Boston Common, has returned to the streets with a new canvas: discarded mattresses left behind during peak moving time in the city.
Since then, Shea has been keeping busy. Along with continuing to draw on Boston Common, he released an album in July called “The Guy Who Draws.”
Many of the songs are about the city, including “Boston Strong,” which Shea said is essentially a compilation of his complaints about Boston, from the weather to the T, to the “crazy people downtown.”
“The true love of Boston is to kind of complain about it,” he said.
Now, Shea can be seen performing his music while drawing. His latest show was a rap concert Saturday with Sofar Sounds.
He is also partnering with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for a drawing session on Sept. 12, and with Uniqlo in Downtown Crossing for another drawing session on Sept. 26.
In between, Shea said, he’ll likely pop up on Boston Common or Newbury Street. He encourages people to keep an eye on his Instagram for his whereabouts.
“I’ve been doing a ton of stuff all because I’m sitting here drawing in the park,” Shea said. “This is still my roots and my home base that I come here.”
Boston continues to be a major source of inspiration for Shea.
“I like that it’s unique in, like, the scheme of art and music,” he said. “In terms of mainstream media, it’s never Boston. So to me, it feels cool to be somebody who is representing Boston in a way that’s not all about Dunkin’ Donuts or, like, Southie.”
He likes the idea of Boston residents seeing his work and feeling a sense of ownership.
“This is ours. We don’t have to go anywhere else. We have cool things here,” he said.
As for the mattresses, Shea said he is surprised some are still sitting on the streets weeks after he added his artwork.
But he figures the drawings aren’t hurting anyone.
“And from what people tell me, they love seeing them,” he said.
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