Found Objects and Profound Spirituality
Give Four Homeless Artists a New Life
by Paula Chaffee Scardamalia
| PROFILE IN SUCCESS |
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The Hermitage Artists: Found Objects and Profound Spirituality Give Four Homeless Artists a New Life by Paula Chaffee Scardamalia |
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 The Hermitage Artists are (left to right) Paul Cunningham, Jim Kennedy, Michael Lavery and Andrew Stutter. |
THE STORY OF MICHAEL LAVERY SOUNDS LIKE AN OLD WOODY GUTHRIE FOLK SONG: HE LOST HIS JOB, FOUGHT ALCOHOLISM, LOST HIS MARRIAGE, ENDED UP HOMELESS AND DESTITUTE. UNLIKE SOME FOLK SONGS, THOUGH, LAVERY'S STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING. HIS INTEREST IN TRAMP ART NOT ONLY HELPED HIM REGAIN HIS SELF-ESTEEM, BUT IT LED HIM TO FIND THREE PARTNERS, WHO TOGETHER BUILT A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, LIFELONG FRIENDSHIPS, AND A HOME IN THE COMMUNITY.
FINDING MENTORS BY THE TRAIN TRACKS
Growing up near the railroad yards in Rensselaer, N.Y., in the 1950s, Lavery came in contact with and befriended many transients who rode the rails looking for work, and working for food. Lavery even let one of the men into his house to take a shower. The hobos taught Lavery, who was not yet 10 years old at the time, how to use a railroad file (found around the tracks) to turn old, discarded cigar boxes into works of art.
This type of work created by homeless travelers was known as "tramp art." A relatively little known form of folk art, tramp art spread to the United States in the early 1860s by wandering apprentices of German and Scandinavian descent. The trampers popularized chip carving as they traveled across the country looking for jobs or just pursuing a vagabond life.
The key to tramp art was the use of found or scavenged materials, especially wooden cigar boxes, which were abundant at that time. Tramp art boxes, some made from mahogany, were carved with notching. Layer by layer of carved wood was added, with each succeeding layer slightly smaller than the first, creating a pyramidal effect on each surface. The boxes were sold for money to pay for food and other necessities.
THE IRONY OF IT ALL
Many years later, alcoholism cost Lavery his job and his marriage, and he found himself living as a squatter in an abandoned general store in Troy, N.Y., where those boyhood lessons came back to him. Using an old door laid across two oil drums as his workbench during the day (it served as his bed at night), Lavery began carving not only cigar boxes, but any wooden boxes he could find in the alleys of the city, usually fruit and vegetable crates. He scrounged his tools from those same alleys. A broken sword for carving, an old mason's hammer (which he still has), an old railroad file to score the boards for breaking since he had no saw, paints and stains mixed from used paint cans, floor adhesive for glue, and bearing grease and toothpicks to adhere the layers together.
"I had no distractions, obviously, of family or employment," says Lavery. "I lived where I worked. I was taking cold sponge baths out of a sink. When you have nothing, your awareness is acute, design becomes apparent and you can give it your total focus. My work was a complete recycling of myself and the items I found in the alley."
 (Above) Stacking flag boxes from the Hermitage Artists are examples of the group's "tramp art." Originally made from found cigar boxes, the boxes are now made from recycled produce crates. |
FINDING INSPIRATION AND SELF-ESTEEM
With his self-esteem rising with each notch he carved, Lavery met Andy Stutter, a man who had, like Lavery, fallen prey to life's hardships and destitution. Lavery taught Stutter to carve, and soon they met Jim Kennedy and Paul Cunningham, whose experiences and desires to stay sober echoed theirs. The men gathered in the abandoned store, creating small apartments for themselves on the upper floors while continuing to use the first floor as their workshop.
Modeling themselves after a monastic lifestyle, Lavery, Stutter, Kennedy and Cunningham made democratic decisions about the business and the design and production of the work. From the beginning, the Hermitage Artists, as they are now called, functioned as a group. In fact, Lavery says, the business wouldn't exist today without each of the four members.
Together, they began producing tramp art boxes and selling or bartering them locally for food and services. "At first we just plucked prices for the items out of the air," laughs Lavery, "but then we developed a sense of what the work was worth in time and effort. Our goal, though, was to still make it possible for most people to own a piece."
 Detail of carved work by the Hermitage Artists. |
TAKING A SPIRITUAL TURN
While en route back to the city from a visit with his children at Canandaigua Lake, Lavery discovered Auriesville, where he encountered the shrine of Kateri Tekakwitha. Tekakwitha was a young woman of the 1600s, reportedly left disfigured and half blind by disease, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. Inspired by the story of Tekakwitha, who was said to be an early folk artist, Lavery began carving a diorama of her life. At the end of each day, he would remove the diorama from the makeshift workbench to make his bed for the night, then return the diorama to the workbench the next morning. Finally, the piece became so large and heavy he could no longer lift it, so the door became a permanent base for the diorama, forcing Lavery to make his bed on the floor.
Auriesville, also home to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, including the Martyr Museum and a scenic statuary, became somewhat of a retreat for Lavery and his friends. During one trip there, they sat in on some of the functions being held as part of a drive to promote canonization by the pope, and Lavery learned that the drive organizers were looking for a statue to give to the pope at a papal exhibition in Denver, Colo. He had one to give them. He also carved three "backpack shrines," that he and two of his partners could carry ("the fourth [partner] carried the literature"), and they went on the pilgrimage to Denver, where "millions of people gathered in a field," recalls Lavery. There, his statue was presented to and accepted by the pope. Lavery and his friends "even stood next to Vice President Al Gore," he says, and the statue was shipped back to Rome with the rest of the exhibition for display in the Vatican.
His original diorama of Tekakwitha was displayed at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, and is now on permanent exhibition at the New York State Museum in Albany. Lavery was astounded by the recognition, while at the same time, he enjoyed the irony of standing among the crowds of people that came to view it. "I had to smile, knowing that underneath it all was my former bed," he says.
The experience made a huge impression on the Hermitage Artists, says Lavery. "We put everything we had into every piece we did from then on." None of the four share a religion, but they all believe in the spirituality of their craft.
The Hermitage ArtistsJim Kennedy, who is in his 60s and the oldest of the bunch, is a book lover. He named the group "The Hermitage Artists," drawing inspiration from the writings of author Thomas Merton, an American spiritual and religious writer of the mid 1900s. Kennedy is the writer and archivist of the group, keeping the records and history of the business, as well as doing the paperwork. He is also the chief waxer, using Boston Brown wax to carefully finish each piece. Paul Cunningham is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is the designer and model maker of the group, creating templates for each design from winter grape crate boards. Andy Stutter is their "wheel man," picking up materials and supplies, and maintaining their vehicles. He is also their salesperson and bookkeeper. And, according to Lavery, "Andy can look at a photograph of something and [create] it in wood." Stutter's son, Jeff, pitches in doing trace work and cutting. Michael Lavery also designs work, passing the designs on to Cunningham to create models or templates as needed, as well as doing freestyle carving and applying finishes. With his background in industry, Lavery also serves as the workplace manager, delegating tasks and scheduling. |
IT'S SHOWTIME
In the meantime, through their association with the Rensselaer County Council for the Arts (RCCA), the Hermitage artists began to show at local street fairs and craft shows in the early '90s. When they learned of a larger show in Central Park in New York City, they were determined to exhibit there. They created between 300 and 400 of their multi-layered boxes, loaded up their converted Albany County Jail bus (which they still have), drove to the city and set up their work on cauliflower and lettuce crates, sleeping in the bus at night.
They sold only one box of the several hundred they had made, but they do not consider that first show a flop. In fact, it was quite significant. It demonstrates the power of perseverance, an essential element to a successful business, says Lavery. "The point is to stay with it," he says. "We only sold one box, but we continued striving for it, and now we sell thousands."
THE BUSINESS GROWS
Soon after the show, the Hermitage Artists developed a "salesman's sample case" with examples of their boxes and frames, and took it from gallery to gallery in New York City. Word of the artists began to spread, eventually reaching a writer for The New York Times. This led to a two-page article about the men and their work, and helped establish their credibility in the public eye.
The article brought them to the attention of another writer and collector who was writing a book about tramp art. Amazed by the volume and quality of their work, he purchased several one-of-a-kind pieces. He also took pictures for his book and then offered to act as the group's agent.
The writer represented them for two and a half years, bringing them business from prestigious clients, like Neiman Marcus and the Museum of American Folk Art. He also helped them find an audience for some of their larger, one-of-a-kind pieces, like the desk he had purchased and then sold to the Discovery Channel for display in its retail store in Washington, D.C.
When demand for the work began to outpace production, the group decided to hire men on work release from prison and shelters. Like many other craftspeople, however, they found that the time required to train, supervise and counsel the men was too demanding, taking time away from their own design and creative time. The experience taught them that the use of templates and task breakdowns would increase their own production.
For More InformationHermitage Artists BOOKS: 2. Tramp Art: A Folk Art Phenomenon 3. "Tramp Art, One Notch At A Time" |
RE-EVALUATING THEIR BUSINESS AND FINDING A NEW HOME
Although the Hermitage Artists now purchase some of their materials, like toothpicks (which they purchase by the load), the bulk of their materials are still scavenged. In an agreement with Price Chopper, an area chain of grocery stores, Stutter picks up 6,000 to 7,000 produce crates a year that would otherwise be squashed in a compactor and taken to landfills.
"It's a great way to recycle," says Lavery. "I keep a tally of weight from each store, then at the end of the year we send the store management thank-you letters with a gift. They help us, we help them."
About a year and a half ago, the four men sat down to look at where they were and where they wanted to be in five years. "We figured we had about five years of youthful energy left among the four of us," says Lavery. "Jim, after all, is 63."
As a result, they decided to leave the abandoned building that had become their home for a more pastoral environment where violence and gangs were not a major concern. They purchased a farm in Greenville, N.Y., in the foothills of the Catskills. The farmhouse has a great room where they can all gather, as well as enough space for each of them to have some privacy. Their shop is in a barn across the road. The men were able to save sufficient funds to pay 75 percent of the cost of the property up front. They took a mortgage on the rest.
At this point, their works are in the permanent collections of or sold by over 100 clients, including Universal Studios, the owners of the Philadelphia Phillies, and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. The majority of these clients have been reached through the International Gift Shows, says Lavery. "Initially, it's expensive to do one of these shows, but once you've done the first one, it basically sets your business," he says.
Another major contributor to the success of the Hermitage Artists, adds Lavery, is a great deal of publicity. "We've been very lucky to get a lot of media exposure. You need exposure like that on a consistent basis."
Their advice to others is simple. "Remain honest no matter what. Give more than is required," says Lavery. "Never over-invest. Focus on your trade and strive to be the best at what you do. Business should be about attraction, not promotion. And, give back."
The Hermitage Artists "give back" in impressive quantity. They have helped build "daycare centers" (centers for the homeless), they speak in prisons to graduating GED classes and for the local JayCees, have raised money for the local school playground, and more.
The significance of these charitable deeds, aside from their charitable nature, stresses Lavery, is that "we tie-in with the community now. We have become a part of it rather than isolated from it."
Lavery, Stutter, Kennedy and Cunningham are "bona fide citizens now," he says. "We can take weekends off, watch baseball, collect old cars, visit with our families. Our commitments are to our work and to each other. And we hope that in a few years, we can sit in rockers on our front porch and enjoy security and the beautiful scenery. Life is about balance, not about the big hit."
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a Berne, N.Y.-based freelance writer who teaches and owns her own weaving business, Nettles and Green Threads.
SEPTEMBER 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS