
Luis
Jason Leith
Found objects, Charcoal, Etching, Composite gold leaf
2013
Luis is a man at peace, a quiet spirit. Instead of anxiously filling in empty spaces with words, he invites the gaps in conversation. He sits back and quietly takes it all in, more of an observer than a participant in the near-bedlam all around him. He never seems to lose his dignified bearing. Luis is known as “Scrappy” because he’s the street’s mechanic, digging into his oversized bag of tools to tweak, repair, or repurpose the scraps people bring him – pieces of a bike, a broken wheelchair, a shopping cart. Luis is self-perceptive. He perceives the image of himself that could be, and should be, but you can tell that his own ideals are so elusive that it is challenging for him to even think about trying to be that person he knows is deep down inside him somewhere.