California Collection : Closing with homeless, the map and 28.5 paint brushes
It was only really during that 7 hour / 450+ mile drive back up Interstate 5 from San Diego to Sacramento that the final 2 pieces (the last 2 paintings) of The 80 strong California collection clicked into place....
Branded Trucker Cap in California (Honks horn)
All that time on the road....
#66 of The California Collection : On the road Route 66
Acrylic on canvas and an unscratched California Lottery ticket.
where I'd painted 1 painting a day for 78 days at some places with a seemingly unlimited wealth....
#69 of The California Collection Bittersweet Google
Acrylic on canvas
48' x 36' (4 foot by 3 foot in old money)
Of unparalleled beauty....
Of I'd better not look twice it's full of homeless here and smells of Bovril....
exploring both sides of the coin was the idea, you see.....
Smashing the next collection out, my biggest by a factor of 3 and a big bit...
Then the lightbulb moment....
To help 'crack' America (excuse the link to the Bruce Lee image above)....
....couldn't just be about The Donald Trump Art....
That'll come in good time as the plot thicken and Art tells a story....
Did I mention I've a couple of pieces with Trump signed $1 and $1 bills?
and frankly the closing of the California collection deserved to be well, from the heart, and one of the biggest canvasses (6 feet x 5 feet) I'd left up in the studio in Sacramento...
stayed on the easel, still unfinished, untitled and although it frustrated me at the time putting it to one side was the right decision. The final few weeks, you see, pushed my own limits in terms of safety, creativity and cheek and the one sad, common thread, without exception in California, was the homeless issue...
It bothered me. My half-baked (they were, I wasn't) attempt to embrace a gaggle of homeless (not sure what the collective noun is, maybe a Tent of homeless? up on Haight / Ashbury was a quick smash, paint, grab and I hope my car is still there when I get back....
It'll cost you more that $5 for this painting - come on more fingers!
The one feature with the homeless state wide was shopping trolley / carts. Often crammed with their worldly possessions / catch of the day...
The shopping cart / trolley Conga dance : Sacramento : Summer 2018
It struck me during the 80 days when I was generally safe and sound in my agents house, hostel, hotel, motel, holiday in, tent, caravan...
Wherever and whatever....
Continued to resonate with me - imagine 'no home' in the peak of summer, winter or whenever - never a good time to be homeless. Right?
I had to do something to 'put my heart out to the homeless'....
Painting on the steps of Compton, South Central Los Angeles, nearly cut it but it was more of a cash and grab stunt with a nod to NWA...
Dropping into an In & Out burger to share my food wasn't really going to cut it either.....
In or out....
In and Out bag and acrylic on canvas
so the first step was to complete painting #79 by adding more hearts, more colour, the home symbol on the left hand side at the start of life...
Then a shopping trolley / cart on the right hand side as everything fell downhill...
I started to wonder, the more homeless I saw, rather than brand them as homeless cattle but think for each and everyone of them, how did they end up in that situation?
A few wrong turns?*
*Answer to the maze at the end of this article.
Not running the life of race the way they should?
Or simply not very good with money?
Art on an ATM camera in Sacramento, California - big brother!
Whatever it was, despite completing the painting 'Out pouring of hearts for the homeless' something was still missing. Then it came to me....
To give my case, full of my clothes to the homeless by driving into the heart of one of the homeless tented communities.....
Hands up, I was a little nervous, it was a drive into the unknown and literally as we got out of the car with my case full of clothes we were approached by the local legend, downtown James Brown, who had fallen on bad times....
If we'd had put the feelers out for a lively, media friendly volunteer James Brown downtown would have been chosen by a royal mile...
He really got into it and best of all, insisted he would 'share around the clothes' but keeping the obvious Six Million Dollar man he was so keen on!
Leaving only an old 1977 Map of California and all 28.5 (I broke one) paint brushes used over the 80 days to create the 80 paintings there was only one thing for it - to unleash paint all over the map, sticking the paintbrushes on and call it 'Finding my way in Cali-for-nia....'
It felt right to wrap it up on that note! I'll be digging deeper into the whole homeless topic in the weeks ahead - glad I, in a small way, addressed it head on and if only Downtown James Brown got a lift then that'll do for me....
Oh - the answer to the maze....
More about dollarsandart
Dollars = Energy, Money, life!
Sand = Like grains of sand, we are each unique, shaped by the dance of time and the tides of change.
The Art - well it's combining both - following your passion, your X-factor as it were, making a living from it in whatever form works for you....
So, What's your story? I'd ♥️ to know more and connect dots through Art as your dance continues, feel free to reach out and thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or email me personally jim@dollarsandart.com