Some artists discover their muse in what is called “found art,” and recent University graduate Amy Bowers, who practices this style, found her most recent inspiration in the most unlikely of sources: homeless signs.
Yes, those signs you see while driving down the road, held by anyone from homeless veterans to wandering nomads to addicts.
While most try to pay little attention to these people and their signs, Bowers finds something interesting and personal in every single sign she collects.
“I think it’s interesting, the range of emotions,” she said.
Bowers, who graduated this winter term with a degree in English, began collecting signs throughout Eugene and Springfield in 2007 after she picked one up off the road with her friend and was inspired to put them in an art show one day.
Before collecting homeless signs, Bowers said she loved making art with found art, such as bottle caps or scraps, and using them to make things like mosaics.
The signs she collects are never directly from the person who used them — Bowers strictly collects signs she finds herself, on a street corner, in bushes and during bad or good weather.
“Seventy-five percent of the time I stop the car and pick up a sign,” she said.
The most interesting thing about these signs is the personality behind them, the perspective it gives you of the person without them being there.
The signs range from clever to sad and sobering, to incoherent and shockingly blunt.
One sign simply reads, “Something clever.”
Another bluntly states, “Ugly people need beer too.”
And others are more desperate and heart-wrenching: “Xmas wish: motel,” one said.
Some are artistic, using straight lines and nice handwriting, while others are unstable, crooked and unreadable, perhaps a reflection of those who wrote them.
All of these signs together make for an interesting case study of the homeless population, Bowers said.
Bowers won’t adorn the signs with any frames or add-ons but instead wants to hang them by themselves, minimalist-style. She said she is excited to see them all in one place, and she hopes the art show displaying her collection will give a voice to the homeless population.
Bowers’ show opens Aug. 1 at The Museum of Unfine Art & Record Store in Eugene, with a fundraiser for Sheltercare held at Cowfish in downtown Eugene on May 6.
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