4/2/24 Arting in Tent City
In 2010/11, I was living in a tent city in Clearwater, FL. I had recently gotten sober in a rehab, and when I got out, no money and nowhere to sleep but camping out. I had made a bunch of ink drawings while I was in rehab- for 17 days & about as many drawings. It was so easy to be creative as there was so much down time, and not a lot of distractions. Meals were taken care, and no could leave, except to leave the program, so we either attended meetings, then watched TV, talked, or in my case, drew.
So, I got out, sober and clearheaded, with nowhere to go. I found out if I wanted to get into the new tent city, I had to go to a place in St. Petersburg on a certain day of the month to get on a list, which I did go, but something about the process meant a wait- either another month, or some process snafu, so I just went to the actual tent city on the day of the week they did intake.
There was a no-show, so I got in, a patch of land at the end of a long industrial road- almost 3/4 of a mile off the main strip, and It was… interesting. There is a lot I could write about that experience, but I want to limit it to how I managed to continue my creative streak.
I got a PELL Grant for vocational training- website building- and with some of the money I got from that, and also some scrapping I was doing, I got a storage unit, between Tent City and the school I attended. Using a whole variety of materials- board, rags, jewelry, tools, drawers, found house paint- I created a bunch of pieces, many with oil/water paint mixtures, which create wild effects as they separate, and are fun to watch, as they move and even bubble. I would pull a few pieces out into the hall, as few came by to use their units, and just build and pour right there on the floor, sometimes 7 pieces at a time, putting as much paint on as it took to get a good look, then moving on to let that piece dry, and see if it needed more then.
You can see by the number and variety, that in the few weeks I had to do this, I was quite productive. This is where I want to get back to. Not geographically, but psychologically.
No. 26 A drawer with sides cut down, rope, barbed wire, stain, photos
No. 45 Found Objects
No. 46 Drawer, wood pieces, oil and water based paints
No. 47 Found Objects
No. 48 Wood pieces glued to drawer, oil/water-based paint drips/splatters
No. 54 Wood, saw, sawblade
No. 55 Oil/water-based paint splatters on framed print
No. 56 Oil/water-based paint on found objects in drawer
No. 57 Oil/’water-based paint in drawer
No. 58 Oil/water-based paint in drawer
No. 59 Oil/water-based paint in drawer, added found objects; my favorite
No. 61 Oil/water-based paint on board, made frame
No. 62 Oil/water-based paint on board, made frame