Robert is an overcomer. Virtually seconds after meeting Robert, he told me that the number one thing that he wants to communicate to the world is the horror of crack cocaine. He lifted up his shirt to reveal scores of large, swollen, red lesions on his torso, a problem caused by drug usage, which he wanted me to depict in his portrait. As I showed Robert how I was going to place my drawing so the holes in the paper become his scars, I told him that if he is trusting in the right source of power, he can turn his body, scars and all, into a powerful story of redemption. He fixed his gaze at me from under his weathered brow and his distinctive headphones, and reiterated that he wanted to get this message out to the world to avoid crack. A week later, Robert called me from a rehab center, and told me that because of his portrait, he had checked himself in and had been clean for 48 hours, for the first time in decades.
