Panhandlers Show at the Democracy Center
June 9, 2015
It’s been a long time since I posted here and with good reason. The GoFundMe campaign was a success, the paintings were framed, the show went up, the show came down—two days later and I’m still exhausted.
The GoFundMe Campaign was a Success
Kinda… I raised $1400 (and that mostly through the generosity of my brother Eric), far below the $2500 I thought I needed. Luckily a friend turned my on to Franken Frames (http://www.frankenframes.com), where I was able to attractively frame the paintings for about $21 each. I can heartily recommend them.
The Paintings were Framed
It took a while but everything got framed, wired, wrapped and ready to go. The next step was to track down some food for the opening, and here I’d like to thank Otto Portland (http://www.ottoportland.com/) for their donation of five large pizzas. The pizza was delicious (mashed potato and bacon, anyone?) and a considerable number of the local homeless population got their pizza on. We also had veggie, fruit and dessert platters. The homeless folks who stuck around to the end left with quart baggies of leftovers.
The Show Went Up
Saturday was incredibly hectic. The show had to go up and come down the same day—there was going to be a punk concert the following night, so leaving it up was not an option. So step one was to pick up a rented van, which I did at 8 am. I drove it home, we loaded it with paintings and other stuff, loaded up the car too, and headed to Cambridge. We were lucky enough to find two parking spots outside the Democracy Center, where we were met by director Vero Smith and daughter Sara. We unloaded the car and van and started unwrapping paintings. At a certain point it became necessary to move the car/van to avoid a ticket. Vero had validation tickets for a nearby parking garage, so I first drove the van over there… and the entry was too low. I ended up parking the van in the hotel parking garage across the way. I then walked back to the Democracy Center, picked up the car and brought it to the first parking garage. When I got back the second time my brother Eric, his son Dave and a friend had arrived. I took them to the first garage and gave them the second parking validation I had, then walked them back to Harvard Square, gave them a brief tour and left them at Leavitt and Pierce while I headed back to the Democracy Center.
In my absence the hanging had gone exceedingly well. Each painting was hung with a brief description of the panhandler who had posed. We were actually done by 3:30 and were able to relax a little before the opening.
Here’s the food:
You can tell I was pretty exhausted by the time I took these photos.
People started to arrive. Special thanks to Elena, Ian and Olivia, denizens of the Monday night figure drawing session at the Democracy Center, for coming. Also Dennis, who had been extremely helpful in getting the word out to the homeless community in Harvard Square:
and his wife Kelly (who was not really enthusiastic about having her picture taken):
Dennis became quite emotional by the end of the night. He told me, sadly, that Sean, pictured below, hadn’t been seen in a while and he feared he was dead. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s extremely difficult to find information or statistics about deaths in the homeless community. Unless there is something unique or odd about them or their demise, they merit neither a news article nor an obituary. Here is the portrait I painted of Sean in 2011.
I also chatted with the owner of Grolier Poetry Shop, who was equally concerned about Gary and Whitney, neither of whom had been seen in the Square since last fall. Both are Harvard Square regulars, so their absence reflects either extremely good news, or extremely bad.
Alistair did show up around 5 and left at 6. He said that 6 pm was “rush hour” for him and he needed to get back to his spot in front of the Harvard Book Store in order to panhandle. Alistair also corrected some mistakes I had made in my description of his paintings. The scars on his face were not from fights; they were spots where he’d had tattoos removed.
Here are some more pictures of the show:
I spoke with a lot of people, received a lot of compliments and was literally reeling with exhaustion by the time 8 pm rolled around. Now it was time to take down the show.
The Show Came Down
I would like to especially thank, in addition to Vero Smith, my wife Joanne and my daughter Sara, Michael and Rachael Peckar, my step-brother and sister-in-law, for sticking around to the bitter end and helping take down the show. Once the take-down got started, I walked back to the parking garage (for the fourth time that day), picked up the van, and was very lucky to find a very illegal parking spot in from of the Democracy Center. We loaded up the van, I said my goodbyes, then drove Sara back to the garage to pick up our car, sent her back to pick up Joanne, and drove back to Mansfield.
It was a crazy, exhilarating day. Next on the agenda: getting the paintings down to Washington!
Kickstarter Failed. On to GoFundMe!
April 23, 2015
Well the Kickstarter campaign was a failure. My daughter said to me, “Why are you using Kickstarter? Use GoFundMe instead.” I said, “But isn’t that for racists and homophobes whose businesses are failing so they drum up support on GoFundMe by saying they won’t serve pizza at gay weddings?” and she said, “Oh Dad…”
Anyway, I’m on GoFundMe now. The purpose of the campaign is to raise money to frame my “Panhandlers of Harvard Square” paintings for a one day show at the Democracy Center in Harvard Square. Then the paintings are being put on permanent loan with the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, DC. It’s a really worthwhile cause and if you stumble over this page, your contribution, in any amount, would be greatly appreciated (considering the subject matter, I’d actually prefer to get 2,500 $1 donations, but too late for that; my family and friends, and a few very kind strangers, have been very generous and I’m halfway to my goal). The GoFundMe page is here:
http://www.gofundme.com/sg5yb4
In addition to the info on that page, I’ve posted a couple of videos. I pulled all the paintings together for some photography, and took the opportunity to display them here, in all their unframed glory:
And I’ll also be posting little video vignettes about the panhandlers as well. Here’s the first one, about Frenchy and Ken:
More will follow. Incidentally, should the GoFundMe campaign go over the amount I’ve set, any extra money will be used to buy food for the opening or be donated to a worthy cause. Here’s a good one:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/hshs/
Thanks for your interest, and your help, and if you happen to be in Harvard Square on June 6, 2015, between 5 and 8 pm, please come to show!
Best wishes,
Marc Clamage
Kickstarter Spam
March 20, 2015
The lesson I’m learning is that if you start a Kickstarter campaign, you get scads of spam offering to help you reach your goal for short money. Costs range from $49.99 to “we’ll discuss it.” Here’s a typical one:
“This is some interesting stuff Marc . I would like to reach out and offer my assistance in getting the word out the best way possible! Do you have a minute to talk about the strategies you’re using to get this thing funded? Let me know what you had in mind so far.
“I’d love to chat more! smile emoticon”
My response:
“Hi Joshua,
“Since I’ve posted this Kickstarter campaign, I’ve received a half a dozen emails from people offering to help me reach my goal, for a fee. You at least took the time to address me by name so I’m responding, but I have to tell you, your offer seems awfully similar to the others, and when I checked your link, it appears you just signed up with Kickstarter last month and haven’t started or backed any projects. I have to wonder what kind of experience you can bring to the table and what differentiates you from the other folks trying to get me to hire them. I’m just a poor, starving artist, I’m not trying to raise all that much money to begin with, and I’m afraid I have no free cash to invest in outside marketing services. If I’ve read you wrong, I apologize; still, you must admit your offer looks suspiciously like the others.
“Best wishes,
“Marc Clamage”
No response.
This is analogous to the “I want to buy your paintings, please deposit this check for more than you’re asking and mail me back the balance” emails I get occasionally. Is it just a matter of scammers targeting artists as vulnerable and needy victims? God knows we don’t have any spare money lying around for the taking.
Self Portrait 2014
December 1, 2014
I set up a dingy little studio in my basement and did my annual self portrait.
Generally speaking I am not one of those “If I didn’t do art I’d kill myself” types—I find painting deeply satisfying, but hardly therapeutic in a clinical sense—but I’ve been pretty down in the dumps lately and doing this did make me feel better. I’ll try and get some more painting done this winter, maybe set up some still lifes.
On the panhandler front, the weather has been mostly miserable for the past few weeks, alternately rainy, snowy and ice cold. I saw Justin and Lauren (“The Lovebirds”) last week and asked how they were doing. They were very excited about moving to Michigan—Lauren’s mom was taking them in and had sent them money for bus tickets. Justin insinuated that they were somehow “pulling a fast one” on Lauren’s mom, but whatever floats your boat and if their self esteem requires them to downplay or trivialize Lauren’s mom’s generosity, I’ll be happy to be grateful to her on their behalf.
Maria
October 31, 2014
Maria was eating an apple outside the Coop. She was wearing a hoodie and, incongruously, a mink coat. A gentleman with a Duck Dynasty style beard, Indio, was introduced to me as her husband. “You’re her husband?” I asked. “I take care of her,” he said.
Because of the paucity of shelter caused by the closing of the Long Island Shelter, I asked Indio what their plans were for the winter. “Heading down to Raleigh,” he said. Apparently Raleigh, NC has an enlightened attitude towards the homeless. “Maybe out west.”
I didn’t get a chance to talk with Maria, who didn’t seem to be the talkative type anyway, because as soon as I set up a drummer of the plastic bucket and miscellaneous cooking utensils variety set up behind me and starting banging away. He was quite good and some of it reminded me of gamelan music. After I finished painting I chatted with him a little bit and asked him if he’d ever heard of John Cage. “He wrote a lot of music for prepared piano,” I said. “What’s that?” he asked. I said, “He put little bits of metal, forks and washers, things like that, under the piano strings and then played the piano. Your music reminded me of his a bit.” “You’re shittin’ me!” he cried. “What do they call that kind of music?” “I guess it’s classical, but back in the day it was called ‘Avant Garde.'” He found a John Cage video on his smart phone and started to watch. “His most famous piece is called 4’33,” I said. “The performer comes out and sits in front of the piano for exactly four minutes and thirty three seconds without playing a note.” “No way!” he exclaimed.
Frank
October 26, 2014
I buy a Spare Change News from Frank almost every week. He was standing in front of my office last Saturday when I came out and eagerly agreed to pose.
Frank is 63. He told me he had been an artist himself but nearly tore his thumb off when he punched a wall in a fit of rage and he could no longer draw. His brother, he told me, is a well known artist, and indeed he is–a successful comic book penciller when I looked up his name on-line.
Frank was in Viet Nam and spent several years as a POW. We discussed his career options–he had been offered a job handing out the free Metro newspaper, but preferred “making my own hours” as the much-less-lucrative Spare Change vendor. “Plus they check up on you. The manager comes around and makes sure you haven’t just ditched your papers.” Like John, he was intensely interested in and (from what I could see) unwelcomely forthcoming with his compliments for passing women. Frank didn’t like his portrait.
Nathan and John
October 13, 2014
Nathan is the son of my good friend, Joey. This is two sittings, which allowed me to bring the painting to a more finished state than my usual.
I set up a mirror so he could watch me paint. He was actually a pretty good model.
I also painted what may be my last panhandler painting of 2014–I’ll try and get out this week but it’s getting cold. I am actually very happy with this painting.
This is John. He volunteered to pose after I was turned down by his buddy–my second rejection of the day. John sipped discreetly from a beer can otherwise hidden behind a trash can, alternated with a clear liquid drunk from a soda bottle in his other hand. He said the cops didn’t bother him; he was too good at hiding his liquor.
John was mostly mumbling to himself, but also enthusiastically appreciating the passing examples of female pulchritude. I said, “I used to work in a grocery store and when a pretty girl walked in we had a code over the intercom: Check out the ice. ‘Check out the ice in aisle three!’ You’re checking out the ice.” “I’ll have some ice,” he answered, “and some Pepsi too.”
A Few Panhandler Updates
September 27, 2014
No new paintings to show, but an update on some issues that have concerned me. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the panhandlers told me that a dozen homeless had died in 2014. I found that shocking; on top of that I could find no evidence on line about anything: no statistics, no listing or summary of homeless deaths in Cambridge. The other day I spoke to Ken and Frenchie, whom I are more reliable, and they thought the number was closer to half a dozen. One recent death was the murder –murder, actually–of Bob Shea, or he was known,”Jumping” Bob Shea. I asked Bob to pose for me once and he said no. Anyway, I didn’t really know him but it seems he had quite the reputation, living on the streets of Cambridge since 1985. Here are two well-written encomia for Bob:
http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140905/News/140908397
I also spoke with Justin and Lauren (see April 27th post) yesterday.. They proudly told me they were married, two weeks ago Sunday. Justin filled me in on what they’d been up to. For a while they had been making and trying to sell jewelry, but they’d lost money on the deal and were back to standard cardboard sign panhandling. Both waxed rather indignant on the vagaries of the market, with Justin particularly offended by Etsy’s betrayal of its trust to sell only handmade goods, and then revealed his plan to create a web site to compete with Etsy. I changed the subject and said, “It’s going to be cold soon, I hope you guys are getting a line on some housing.” Justin told me that once Lauren got her Section 8 paperwork, their married status would make finding a place easy. Lauren assured me her sleeping bag was rated to 20 below. I said, “Yeah, you should really start looking for place to stay.” Justin has spent the winter on the streets before but this will be the first time for Lauren.
Here’s the portrait from earlier this year.
A New Panhandler Portrait and the Finished Norris Children Commission
September 21, 2014
Here are two recent paintings. I was able to finish the portrait commission of the Norris children a few weeks ago, after three sittings. Here it is:
Dylan, the youngest, was the last to pose. He actually grew a few inches between the start of the painting in early summer and completion in early September.
I also painted another panhandler painting. This is John, or as he prefer to be known, Mars.
Mars took the name Mars because he was, he told me, fascinated by the planet Mars. Mars has a distinct southern accent. He told me he and his brother flipped a coin when it came time to make a decision about where to go after leaving Kentucky, and the decision was Boston. His brother is gone, but Mars loves it here and has spent several years in the Harvard Square homeless community. He left an ex-wife and a daughter down South. Mars had originally gotten work as a tattoo artist, but was told his work was too old-fashioned and not up to Massachusetts standards, and so he ended up on the street.
Gary and Whitney have been hanging out outside my office. They still haven’t found a place, although they seemed to have a few leads. Gary almost gleefully told me about another Harvard Square panhandler who died, a young women I haven’t met who worked mornings at JP Licks. That brings the total of premature deaths I’m aware of to three, although Gary claims there have been at least a dozen. I haven’t been able to find any confirmation of this or statistics on homeless death rates in the Square. It’s been a tough year.