Democracy Square
The subject of my painting and graphic art is not homelessness as such, or, condescendingly, "The Homeless," but the sociology of people who live in the streets. I wonder, what personal misfortune led to the displaced person living in the street? This is not a hypothetical question. It is a personal expression of my own feelings, stated in a rhetorical form acceptable to civil discourse. It is self-expression, or, as I prefer to argue, freedom of expression. That's not the aim of Sociology. What Sociology lends to the argument is empirical data. As an artist, my work is squarely situated in the Realist camp. I'm not a fiction writer, even if my sources include the extensive fictional literature concerning the vagabond.
I should quickly add that the larger portion of the data I use as subject matter is fictional. The science of Sociology emerged from the dark ages of speculation, much as chemistry emerged from Medieval alchemy. The 1923 copyright-free University of Chicago Press publication of Nels Anderson's The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man is a foundational study dealing empirically with the subject. It is a classic, and generally considered worthy of the Gutenberg editors' hard work converting a bound edition to digital text.
It is fundamental, incidentally, because I was born in Chicago. I am familiar with districts studied by the author. Art, being what it is, is concerned with values, shades of gray, and color, etc. If certain facts about the subject prove too abstract for visual representation, while others are virtually immersive, a panorama to one who has been there, then a question as to preference--objectivity--may arise. It is, to me, a subject of art, not science. The subject is, to me, above all, people. If I had lived in the book's published era of Chicago's history, I might well have been one of the hat-wearing gents in raincoat, in regular attendance at the daily harangues by various colorful characters at the famous "Bughouse Square," officially, Washington Park, on Chicago's Near North Side. My first art studio was a block away, on the 2nd floor of the still-famous Papa Milano's Pizza. The address is now a bank, the original building having been razed since I was a tenant. I crossed the infamous Bug Square many times.
Copied from The Hobo; The Sociology of the Homeless Man by Nels Anderson, A study Prepared for the Chicago Council of Social Agencies under the Direction of the Committee on Homeless Man:
On the north side of the river, Clark Street below Chicago Avenue is the “stem.” Here a class of transients have drifted together, forming a group unlike any in either of the other areas of Hobohemia. This is the region of the hobo intellectuals. This area may be described as the rendezvous of the thinker, the dreamer, and the chronic agitator. Many of its denizens are “home guards.” Few transients ever turn up here; they do not have time. They alone come here who have time to think, patience to listen, or courage to talk. Washington Square is the center of the northern area. To the 'bos it is Bughouse Square. Many people do not know any other name for it. This area is as near to the so-called Latin Quarter as the hobo dare come. Bughouse Square is, in fact, quite as much the stronghold of the more or less vagabond poets, artists, writers, revolutionists, of various types as of the go-abouts. Among themselves this region is known as the “village.”
Bohemia and hobohemia meet at Bughouse Square. On Sundays and holidays, any evening, in fact, when the weather permits, it will be teeming with life. At such times all the benches will be occupied. On the grass in the shade of the trees men sit about in little groups of a dozen or less. The park, except a little corner to the southeast where the women come to read, or knit, or gossip, while the children play, is completely in possession of men. A polyglot population swarms here. Tramps, and hobos—yes, but they are only scatteringly represented. Pale-faced denizens of the Russian tearooms, philosophers and enthusiasts from the “Blue Fish,” brush shoulders with kindred types from the “Dill Pickle,” the “Green Mask,” the “Gray Cottage.” Free-lance propagandists who belong to no group and claim no following, non-conformists, dreamers, fakers, beggars, bootleggers, dope fiends—they are all here.
Around the edges of the Square the curbstone orators gather their audiences. Religion, politics, science, the economic struggle, these are the principal themes of discussion in this outdoor forum. Often there are three or four audiences gathered at the same time in different parts of the park, each carrying on a different discussion. One may be calling miserable sinners to repent, and the other denouncing all religion as superstition. Opposing speakers frequently follow each other, talking to the same audience. In this aggregation of minds the most striking thing is the variety and violence of the antipathies. There is, notwithstanding, a generous tolerance. It is probably a tolerance growing out of the fact, that, although everyone talks and argues, no one takes the other seriously. It helps to pass the time and that is why folks come to To the hobo who thinks, even though he does not think well, the lower North Side is a great source of comfort. On the North Side he finds people to whom he can talk and to whom he is willing to listen. Hobos do not generally go there to listen, however, but burning with a message of which they are bound to unburden themselves. They go to speak, perhaps to write. Many of them are there to get away from the sordidness of life in other areas of hobohemia.
The graphic art of Brian Higgins can be viewed at: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/8-brian-higgins
One-of-a-kind works of art can be viewed at: https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1840403