Mudman is the alter ego of performance artist Kim Jones. Mudman's look is created by covering his head with a pantyhose, smearing his body with mud and strapping a stick sculpture to his back. Jones first began performing as Mudman around 1974 in Los Angeles and later moved to New York. He appears in public for performances and has exhibitions of his stick sculptures in galleries while he is dressed as Mudman. Some of his more controversial performances have included smearing himself in his own shit while hacking at beer cans with a machete he got during his tour in Vietnam, and burning live rats to death, repeating something he and his fellow Marines had done during the war.
Jones studied art in college and recieved both a BFA and MFA before he created his alter-ego. Much of Jones' work as Mudman is influenced by his experience in the Vietnam War and his bout with Perthes disease ( a polio-like disease), which confined him to a wheelchair from age 7 - 10. Jones continues to appear infrequently as Mudman.
I like the appearance of Mudman; he resembles a superhero (especially in the telephone pole photo) or something supernatural and I can imagine that he would freak a lot of people out while he was walking around a city.
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