About 100 friends and colleagues of artist and Yonkers firefighter Jef Campion recently gathered on Main Street in downtown Yonkers to dedicate a mural in his name.
Artist Fumero, who has a large mural already on one of the buildings at the Saw Mill River daylighting at Van der Donck Park, created the piece that pays tribute to Campion and which recreates Campion’s works of art in the form of a mural – stylishly spray painted on the wall next to the old Yonkers Trolley Barn at 92 Main St.
Fumero and Campion were friends and artistic colleagues, and at the dedication ceremony Fumero emotionally recalled his old friend. A decorated Yonkers firefighter, on Sept. 11, 2001, Campion went to the World Trade Center to volunteer, spent more than a month working on the pile at the ground zero recovery effort , eventually incurring a 9/1- related illness. He passed away in 2014.
The dedication ceremony was held Sept. 10 and included a procession led by the Yonkers Fire Department Pipes and Drums, and comments from Campion’s longtime friend Louie Velluci, who spoke about their school days growing up in Yonkers, the YFD, and the fateful day that changed us all and continues to take a heavy toll. Mayor Mike Spano presented a proclamation to YPD, and Fumero, for their work to honor Campion’s life and causes he was dedicated to, including the Ronald McDonald House.
Yonkers PBA President Keith Olsen gave the crowd a bit of background on how the mural came to be and why it is so important to them all. Assemblyman Nader Sayegh presented citations to Velluci, Olsen, Fumero and other YPD members. City Council members John Rubbo, Michael Sabatino and Michael Breen were also present.
The event was also an occasion to remember those lost from Yonkers, and all first responders on Sept. 11, 2001 – 18 years ago. The location of the mural is also fitting because Campion lived in the Trolley Barn lofts and was an early pioneer of the downtown Yonkers waterfront art scene.
Fumero was presented a gift from YFD for his work, including a mirror designed by Campion that was at one of the firehouses. It contains his iconic “Grenade Boy,” a stencil he made of Diane Arbus’s photograph from the 1960s of a young boy holding a toy grenade.
It is that work of art from Campion, whose artist name was Army of One/JC2, of “Grenade Boy” dripped in blood that I remember seeing throughout the downtown in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It intrigued me then, and it is good to see that Yonkers pays tribute to Campion’s memory.
