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NYC artist transforming parking meters into beauty

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Conrad ­Stojak is aiming to transform old coin-operated meters into masterpieces in NYC.Conrad ­Stojak
Conrad ­Stojak
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Conrad ­Stojak
Conrad ­Stojak
Conrad ­Stojak
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There really is an art to parking in New York City.

Just ask Conrad ­Stojak, a Queens artist aiming to transform old coin-operated meters into masterpieces that will remain on the street to amaze — rather than annoy.

“Parking is a negative experience in New York City — this re-imagines them into something better,” Stojak, 38, told The Post.

He said his public art project struck him last October, when he noticed an inordinate amount of defunct meters in his home borough.

“Some of them had their working parts covered by a plank of wood,” he recalled. “And others were kind of just open, so people were putting their trash inside.

“I was leaning on the bumper of a car, tying my shoe, and I stared at one of these things and thought, if I try hard enough, I could stick something in there ­besides garbage.”

So, using chopsticks and Elmer’s glue, he became an urban ship-in-a-bottle builder, carefully placing a bunch of toy army men ­inside one meter near Elmhurst Hospital, “just to see if I could do it,” he said.

He could, and over the next several weeks he honed his technique on 19 more meters — all in Queens — creating cleverly composed dioramas.

Conrad StojakConrad Stojak

Some featured the familiar — a woman hunched over a shopping cart navigating a snowy street — and others the fanciful — a woman atop the Guggenheim as tourists snap photos. In another, he planted live tulips, transforming the ugly metal husk into a vase.

“For me, it’s about rethinking what we believe is obsolete,” Stojak explained. “Society throws things away too quickly.”

All 20 have since been ­destroyed or removed, but photos he took of some are on display at the Dougherty Gallery in Long Island City.

His goal, he said, is to secure his meters to concrete stands and place them all over the city. “I want to make them mobile,” he said.

He has so far raised $81 in a new online campaign seeking $5,000 for the project, cash that will used to buy 50 meters from the city’s Department of Transportation — if it’s amenable.

As of last year, the DOT decommissioned all single-space meters, removing about 50,000 of the 56,000 total so far.

A city spokesman said the agency, which intends to sell off remaining meters to a salvage company, “would review any additional proposals it receives from interested parties.”

The meters cost the city about $550 apiece when they were new. An auction last year fetched $48,800 for about 6,500 old meters, or about $7.50 each.