Kevin

He was standing on Powell Street with his art display spread out on a bench.  His sign said “Need money for art supplys” so I stopped to look.  We began talking and I told him about $2 Portraits in which he readily agreed to participate.

Kevin is 49 years old and has lived in San Francisco all his life.  He’s been painting since the age of 5 but only as a hobby for most of his life.  He has no family of his own, but comes from a military family; lots of “colonels and captains” as he described.  Not wanting to serve in the military, Kevin says he’s persona non grata with his extended family.  While Kevin scratches together his living now by selling his paintings, he formerly worked in several industries; real estate, mortgage finance, financial services and driving a taxi were a few he named.

Kevin’s paintings were watercolors and block ink prints made from wood carvings he’s done.  He said that sometimes he’ll actually do the printing on the street at Union Square or North Beach and sometimes in a small studio that caters to “starving artists”.  Sometimes he just sets up in either of those places and paints his watercolors.  Small prints sell for $30 and larger framed ones go for $150 and up.  He’ll also donate paintings to charitable organizations for their fundraisers.

As we continued our conversation, I noticed how articulate and well-spoken Kevin was and versed enough on current events to have clear opinions.  Notwithstanding, “F” bombs were aplenty.  In several encounters he described from prior employment or the current state of affairs, there was a recurring theme of being surrounded by “F/U” attitudes…unscrupulous employers and government conspiracies are a few examples he described.  It was incredulous when he told me his great-great-great grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence (not sure if I have the correct number of “greats” here).  I didn’t challenge him on it, but let the conversation keep going.  Kevin reminded me of a prior $2 Portrait subject, Joe Fong (www.flickr.com/photos/jeffm211/13617389334/), where the dialog delivery sounded so believable but the content was way out there.

There is little doubt Kevin would have kept talking for as long as I wanted to stay around.  It was getting late, and I had an early flight in the morning, so I thanked him for his time, gave him $2 and told him I’d look for him painting this spring or summer and we could chat again.  He smiled and thanked me.  With a strong grip, we shook hands and as I turned to leave, he began packing up his display.

Taken 2/12/15