Giuseppe
“Art is a wonderful way of sharing with people, it brings joy and happiness to people. This is my way of giving back, by giving my art.”
Click each photo or scroll down to read Giuseppe’s story
The green door reminded me of solitary confinement. A place where I was told on initial incarceration I would never ever see and would be sheltered from. I was thrown into solitary confinement many, many times. The longest was 59 days and I was scheduled to die in there. This is where the post-traumatic stress disorder comes in. I witnessed six suicides and one homicide with these eyes in prison, young men that shouldn't have died. Haunts me to this day but I survived it.
I see a broken man trying to manage. When we come out of prison, we try to make up for lost time. It's not instantaneous gratification, in my perspective, but trying to achieve just small things. I'm focusing on focusing, on leaving my shame out there and working on grief. But talk about resilience, I'm not giving up. I'm finding a purpose, I’m trying to give back. I made a mistake, I'm not a mistake.
That's me locked up, incarcerated. I'm not a thief. It reminded me of incarceration and of the prison, where everything had to be locked down, superfluously. I grew up in a civilization where we never had security guards in a bank. Now, you have locks on everything. That toilet paper reminded me of negativity, of something pessimistic and yet, we need toilet paper, especially in times of COVID.
It hurts the heart. The longest distance that we ever travel is between the head and the heart. It hits home. I was the guy who drove the Mercedes 500, who had a fleet of 30 vehicles. And now, I ride the bus because of necessity. But I could not have taken the photographs I did if I was driving in a car. Slowing life down is not so bad because I've been running in sixth gear all my life.
I thought of pessimism and optimism mixed together. These are my neighbours at Oppenheimer Park, a very sad part of life. But look at the colours even in there. There's a bright side to it. I always think maybe something good can come out of something bad.
My father was the hockey dad of the neighbourhood and he picked the kids up. He had a 1965 baby blue Ford Galaxie 500, the biggest station wagon in the world to a 10-year-old. He took us to a Mac's Milk store where Tim Horton shook my hand and gave me his autograph. I tell that story to all the kids at Tim Hortons, they love it. I'd like to say my dad was a great guy, but he wasn't. He mistreated my mom for 44 years but she persevered. Maybe that’s where I get my resilience from.
This is one of those Kodak moments of life that you remember. Lucy is my neighbour’s dog. She bit me the first day we met and that hurt. Then I took out the treats and we started getting a relationship. Now, she licks me. She is just 12 inches long, but she's full of life.