Nine O Clock Sunrise Landscape photo Taken while homeless

I have debated if I should discuss my mental health and time while homeless on my professional sites and seeing this image taken on a morning that I woke up on the beach in Kenosha helps me to decide.  I remained a working artist while homeless by taking shots with my cell phone and working on computers at public libraries.  I was homeless from Fall of 2016 to spring of 2018.  Nobody threw me out.  You see I have a mental health condition called schizoaffective disorder.  I would like to raise awareness among the arts communities of the problems I faced as someone with this disorder.  The symptoms are those of bipolar mania, depression and sometimes with the depression I get auditory hallucinations.  With prolonged auditory hallucinations comes delusional thinking.  I was in a period of good health from 2012 to 2015 and was off medication.  I had just graduated with a Bachelors of science in graphic designs.  One of my proudest achievements.  I was enrolled in graduate school for web design.  Something slowly affected me and it was related to possibly not having a place to live.  You see my father, whom i moved in with after my first divorce, was planning on selling the house.  I figured I would get lost in the shuffle.  I began having delusional thinking that stemmed from simple glitches my computer was having.  I made them out to be more than they were and I eventually felt watched.  Nobody in my family was very technical so I had no review and eventually I decided to get in my car and just leave.  I took my art making equipment and my computer and tried to survive on the road for 200$ a month.  My POD store earnings at the time.  I drove as far as possible and then dropped my car and took a train back only with what I could carry.  I spent much of the next two years sleeping rough, or as homeless call it, sleeping outside on benches in parks.  You see if you stay in a homeless shelter they take what money you earn to save for a home for you.  I decided that wasn't for me most of the time so I just slept outside.  Two years.  Every once in awhile I'd call home and I didnt make much sense so that din't go anywhere.  

 The photo was taken with a cheap windows phone I had while sleeping outside and was all I coiuld afford.  I managed somehow to save it to my one drive and get it it in my portfolio on icloud before I had lost all my accounts to a password memory problem.

9 Oclock Sunrise was taken in the october months of my outdoor sleeping homeless stay which remained primarily along the lakeshore of Lake Michigan.  I stayed within a few days journey of my favorite homeless spot, Racine, Wi.  Why was this my favorite spot?  It had a wonderous place called the hospitality center that served homeless and townies alike coffee breakfast and lunch five days a week.  four days when i was there but they have since increased.  Their doors opened at 730b am.  Coffee.  It was something to look forward to after a cold night outside.  Their homeless outreach program was the best too.  I chose Racine because it had benches with streetlights because I was afraid of the dark.  Its also along Lake Michigan which if kept on the right meant you always knew north and east.  The morning of 9 oclock sunrise I had woken in a park in Kenosha, a place just to the south that I frequented when I needed to break the monotony of Racine.  I used to love the sunrise.  After a cold night you could feel the warmth of the sun in every part of you as the day broke through.  You did it, you survived another night.

 see the Nine O Clock Sunrise Collection

Eventually I returned home, started seeing doctors again, and made peace with my very supportive family.  I now live with my sister while I await hud housing lists.  My goal is to make enough money on this and my other sites to move back to Racine on my own and become actively involved in homeless help services.  I need sales to do this.  Every item you buy from me goes to this cause.