Campbell Whyte and his family, visiting San Francisco, had their luggage stolen. And it's not just luggage: with them were the tools of their livelihood, right down to paints and brushes. The story is heart-wrenching, not just for the circumstances, but also for the victims' willingess to understand why some are reduced to the risky and generally unrewarding business of street theft. And then there's this:
We have spent the last few days in shock, but we have a plan. A plan to make things right and to reclaim the things that were taken from us. We will make our way out of this situation, rather than break our way out. This is our choice, this has been our choice from the beginning. The act of creation, to make things better. This is our plan for life, to keep making things better. For ourselves, for our families, for our community. We want things to keep getting better.
We will make a painting of each item of our luggage. A small gouache painting of each item, and then write down our memories, our hopes. How it would have fit in to our lives back home.
In doing so, while we won’t have the object itself, we will keep our intention. At the end of the year we will exhibit those paintings, to share with everyone our reclamation.
In the maantime, prints are available of Campbell's bizarre and wonderful fantasy art. [via Cabel Sasser]
