Street roots., March 14, 2014, Page 6, Image 6

6
street roots
M arch 14, 2014
Sharing a rt
and a good
story, too
Transition
Projects
believes
RO One
should have to be
homeless.
BY SARAH HANSELL
/
B
% i.
Transition^
Projects »
650 NW Irving St.
Portland, OR 97209
503.280.4700
1 www.hJrojects.org
CENTRAL CITY
Ending homelessness and
achieving self-sufficiency - ’
now roasting and distributing
craft coffee.
Available fo r purchase at:
New Seasons Market
Green Zebra Grocery
Food Front Cooperative Grocery
Chuck's Produce
Call u sici offlcècoife^ accounts! f
6Q3-7&4-9263
k CENTRAL
C O N T R IB U T I N G W R IT E R
hen H arry Richards and I sit down
for our interview, th e first thing he
asks m e is if I w ant half of his
burger. You have to learn how to share, he
explained, w hen you grow up in a big family
like h e did.
Now, H arry shares in a different way -
through art. He sta rte d drawing caricatures
for tips and donations n e ar Saturday M arket
in 2010. H e draws a lot of kids, he said.
“I ask kids w hat’s th eir favorite thing -
CITY
Harry Richards
race cars, dinosaurs, b ears; — ballerinas,
unicorns,” he said. And 1 take th eir face and
I tu rn th em into th a t favorite object. So
they w ant to be a pirate on a ship, I draw a
pirate ship th en I give them a pirate hat.”
B ut H arry doesn’t ju st share his a rt with
people who are willing to tip. M any of his
subjects are poor o r experiencing
hom elessness, so he draws them for free.
“I m ean I lived m y life selfishly for many,
m any years being a drug addict. So now th a t
I ’ve been off d rugs for over six years, I w ant
to give back.”
H arry learned to draw in prison by doing
books. H e’s com e a lo n g w ^ ^ m c ^ U je n T H e
now lives in a two-bedroom ap artm en t with
his nephew and nephew ’s friend, and has
plans to convert th e m aster bedroom into
an a rt studio. He draws and paints abstracts,
architectural and spiritual art, and sells it
online with th e help o f his producer, who
discovered him in 2008 and is currently
working on a docum entary featuring his
experiences.
H arry has som e specific goals for this
docum entary, and a vision for a m ore ideal
Portland. He also hopes th a t this
docum entary will help youth See th a t you
can talk about things th a t m atter to them .
H e sees th e struggles thatTiom eless youth
face in Portland, and hopes to m ake a
positive im pact in th e ir lives. H arry grew up
www.centralcltyconcern.org g
iacètoQoX coxn/CfentraiatyCbife^, I
Kristina Wright | Real Estate Agent
Kristina@Portla ndHomeGakom
O b ? on Facebook <&PortlandHorne Gal
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Small packages $2/mile
Large packages $5/mile
Extreme feats and impossible tasks on
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$25/bike. 971-222-9938.
• a knowledgeable marketer
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All wrapped into one persoif
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m acaroni and cheese betw een seven people
for dinner w hen he w as growing up. He
w ants to help youth avoid going through
scale drawings and looking at cartoon
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“I know w hat th ese children’s shelters
offer,” he said. “They offer stuff, but it’s
always ‘do this do that, do this do th at,’ and
th a t’s why they don’t w ork for m ost kids.
And m ost kids have been seriously abused,
m olested by th e ir parents, sold for drugs,
and being told w hat to do to have a bed,
they’re not going to do that. To talk to a
stranger about w hat’s going on and why
they’re sad, they not going to do that,
because they don’t tru st.”
Drawing caricatures for money, however,
isn’t a viable option for H arry all year round.
So w hen he m et som eone selling S tre et
Roots in November, he decided to try it for
himself. Since then, H arry has brought four
m ore people to S tre et Roots.
“It’s b e tte r than being dependent on
o th er people and having no self-esteem ,” he
said.
H arry enjoys th e people he gets to m eet
„while selling papers — from doctors, lawyers
and orchestra m usicians, to people from
around th e w orldstaying in downtown
hotels. ‘
“I like to intellectualize with people.”
H arry encourages people to seek out
S tre et R oots as an incom e opportunity as
i
well as an opportunity to connect with
others.
“Even if you can’t tru s t rig h t now, you’re
still gonna m ake social friends,, which can
open you up to show th a t th e world is kind,”
H arry said. “All you gotta do is look at it
from a S tre et Roots point of view, which is
don’t judge and you w on’t be judged.”
You can chat up H arry a t his sales site,
outside th e Starbucks a t S outhw est Ninth
Avenue and Taylor Street.