Lemuel

Carolyn Harper

34 x 40 inches

2018

ARTIST STATEMENT

After losing a job as a short order cook, Lucien was unable to pay his rent and was evicted from his apartment in North Carolina. He then took a bus north, having been told that it would be easier to find work in Philadelphia. At the time I met him, he was working as an occasional day laborer, walking to various sites around the city to find work. When he makes enough money, either from that or from panhandling, he sleeps in a rooming house for men. As he put it, $20 would get him a bed for a night. Some of this day labor is sanctioned by the city while other opportunities are found through word of mouth and by showing up at a specific site early in the morning.

MATERIALS

Hand-embroidered batik