Just as an FYI, Gabe was none too happy from the get go to have my particular blog-light shined on him… I suppose I can’t blame him, though I figure if you’re going to record your decent into homelessness on a public forum you’re probably really not all that averse to attention.

But you don’t have to take my word for it, you can read his complaints about me for yourself here. I’ll note that his complaint about my misrepresentation of his educational career (I suggested he hadn’t finished his graphic design degree) has been registered; I changed the information in the original post to match his claims.

Finally, I would like to point out that the following complaint from Gabe is perhaps the most revealing indication of this artist’s particular psychology. And it’s a fascinating bit of writing:

i would like to note also. in retrospect, in quitting the “photo-processing” job, i realize i had a breakdown when i left there. i snapped. i was getting no where but slowly deeper in debt, working mandatory overtime, and getting shit on by fellow employees. it was the accepted environment there, to be a dick, as the owner was a hard core right wing republican dick. i watched artwork get kinked and bent up by hands that should’ve never been touching it, watched a coworker destroy sheet film over and over because she did’nt know how to read the notches on the film, (after working there for over three years) and then blamed it on me like the other four or five guys that walked out/were fired in the two years before me. being blamed for mistakes but working damned hard, i got by regardless of being screwed. after i had been gone for awhile, i decided to really try to push art while i was young enough to do it and was’nt getting by very well as it was. now, i think i should’ve used all my vacation and asked for a large raise first, but i got to the point of just breaking down. the day i walked out of there i was at a crisis point and became physically ill. the reason i stuck it out for a year and a half? i thought i would be able to get ahead, move out of the eight year period i’d spent in photo-finishing, and ultimately make enough money to have my child more. my drive is my child, and surviving so i don’t leave her with a burden of two previous generations of suicide to shoulder. make no mistake, i’d otherwise have offed myself already. i have however gotten closer to my spirituality lately which has helped immensely.

All very good role models.
Jesus, John, and Che (and Vincent) all were dead by their 40th birthday.
Paine, whom I’m not sure was really truly itinerant (but I won’t argue), nearly died at age 36, of typhoid fever, but he somehow survived…

So, a question. Would you advise an impressionable, hopeful, eager and young artist to give homelessness a shot? In George Bush’s America? Hm? Would you?

It’s a frolic in the park, right? A great way to test the social welfare network in these oh so generous times…

Examples of itinerants include:

* Jesus
* Paul Erdős
* John the Baptist
* Thomas Paine
* Che Guevarra