Threshold

(click image to enlarge)

Threshold

Found and mixed media on wood

This image was exhibited in Richmond and is currently on display at Belhaven University. In the Richmond show it was exhibited alongside these verbal snapshots written by Levi Gill:

Two rooming houses stand opposite one another the corner of Barksdale and West. Folks in these houses have their own room and share a common kitchen and bathroom. Tenants of the rooming houses turn over quickly. Pay-by-the-week rentals lend themselves to this transition. Many who’ve occupied part of the rooming houses have moved on to other haunts or been kicked out for fighting or for neglecting rent. Many nurture vices of some variety:

Crack Cocaine; Greed; Lust; Marijuana; Gossip; Anger; Alcohol.

Samuel Scott with his grocery cart full of rescued trash always has something to sell me, some treasure he’s decided I might buy. I’ve purchased calculators, paper clips, snacks, costumes, tennis rackets, blankets, and whiteboards. It’s always good to see my friend. The neighbors call him buggyman, but I see more. I can’t condense his identity to the expired snacks from Walgreens he brings to the block at a discount. He often insists he studied the Bible for 7 years. He admits his time at the state hospital is also the story of losing his house. He stops at my house to cool off and grab some water, hawking a pile of VHS movies he found. His latex gloves are ripped open on the fingers, streaked in dirt and grime. He never stays long, especially if I’m not interested in buying the newest find. “I gotta check on my buggy,” he says and laughs his way back outside.

The manager of the brick building, Harold, stays shut up in his room, and, all the neighbors say, he has his own problems with substance abuse. Budweiser and an oxygen tank with its rhythmic hisses and clicks. His 72” HD TV spans half of one wall. When residents go to pay their rent, they find him hacking up lung goo while he watches football.