Paris aka Holy Joseph

Got an e-mail from someone who came across one of my Paris posts! FINALLY!!!!!! Thank YOU.

"It’s really nice to see some other work by Paris. He and I became very close when I was in Philadelphia.

It is really hard to know what part Paris’ stories were true and what was imagination, I chose to believe that the stories and imagination were one in the same.

He had mentioned that he was a chef on the Queen Mary. He always ate at fancy buffets and take out places, often not finishing his food, a sign of a sophisticated taste (I have a drawing of the Queen Mary that he did, it is gorgeous). One other reason that I choose to believe him is the evidence of great depth in his imagery. He must have been to Europe at some point. It is more than some Jungian connection to shapes and symbols in our collective DNA.

I have many pieces by him. Maybe 10 or so. One piece was done in the back room of - the gallery I worked at - , where paintings were kept, on a cold winter night when I was closing up. He was cold so I allowed him to come in and made him a cup of tea. It was partially a plan to see him work. He sat down for an hour or so and made me a drawing. He used some gold from a chocolate wrapper and pinned it on with fancy art hanging nails that I gave him. The nails seemed like a strange connection to the established art world, it might have been the closest he’d ever be to getting his work in a gallery. (I know that he was part of a show at Moore college of Art. He created a little stir and was asked to leave.)

One day in Spring (eighty something), he told me that he was leaving town. He said that he was going South. I admire Paris for his courage and dedication. He is a hero of mine."

Not sure if this person wants his name on-line or not... forgot to ask. He seems to have known Paris before I had moved to Philadelphia in 1986, the Paris I knew was never quite so lucid. I wonder if Paris actually went South somewhere for a while? He was definitely around 1986 through 1993/1994.

Hopefully this person will get back in touch with some more memories and/or photographs of Paris' work.

Paris

Going through my old papers I found this clipping from what is probably the Philadelphia City Paper, I think 1993.

"He may wear Jiffy Pop packaging as a headdress and mutter incomprehensible sermons. But the colored chalk creations of street personality Paris are the real deal, aesthetically impressive and rich in biblical allegory. Paris knows he's good, too - he'll charge a pretty penny if you want to buy a piece of his work. The Sun Ra of Philly art. - J.G."

Good, another piece of Paris documentation! Go to this 8/11/05 post, if you need to get the background on Paris.

Who is J.G.? Maybe J.G. has some photos of Paris, or of his work? I've been into this occasional trackdown of Paris for about eight years, and have found only one photo... and no other extant examples of his work, although I remember seeing pieces in people's apartments long ago... and was told that John Ollman had bought some.

Roberta discovered this other piece of documentation, after I wrote to her and Libby early in 2004, hoping they would post something on their Philadelphia artblog, a listing for a 1991 show that Paris was included in at the Moore College of Art -

"Found Ground - Paintings and drawings on readymade surfaces by sixteen Philadelphia artists including Alfred Bendiner, Rachel Bliss, Salvador Casco, Charles Crumb, Linh Dinh, Rafael Ferrer, Thomas Gartside, Todd Gilens, Anthony—Petr Gorny, Kate Javens, Virgil Marti, Beth McHenry, Quentin Morris, Gerald Nichols, and Paris/Holy Joseph. January 11–February 16, 1991"

Maybe I can write to Moore, or the curator of the show, and ask if they have any photo documentation?

Last time I posted on Paris I hadn't yet figured out how to post more than one image to the blog. It's nice to be able to post these images now. This is a selection of some of my Paris pieces -


Two peacocks and flowers. LArGeR.


Jesus walking on water, and maybe praying in the boat at the same time. The bottom reads "God Bless America".

The back has a similar drawing.


Sweet piece. Very hard - impossible - to see in this image, but there is a second tiny saint sitting atop his staff.


This one is too good, and it is the BACK of that first peacock piece above. They are on a thick-ish kind of cardboard... when I win the mega-millions they will be separated and framed.

Is this a picture of a dreadlocked Jesus in peace talks with Mohammed, moderated by Mary?


This is the only known photo of Paris, at least, known to me and the guy that gave it to me. I put an ad in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1999(?) asking for any info or remembrances of Paris, from which I received a single response. That person remembered Paris, and told me of a shelter that Paris sometimes visited.

A couple years after that I was able to get to Philadelphia and visit the shelter, meeting a staffperson who remembered Paris very well, with great fondness... and who even had a photo of Paris near his desk.

I like that in this photo you can see some crayons or drawing tools on top of that shelf, next to what is, I BET, a ring of foil headgear. It also appears that he is covering himself with one of his drawings, which is what he did on the streets. He slept on and under them.

Read the old post to fill in any gaps to this Paris story, and LOOK here to see my full Paris set.

Paris

paris8, originally uploaded by Bromirski.

The piece above is one of the ten or eleven or so I own by Paris, also known as Paris the Bum, also known as Holy Joseph. I say "ten or eleven or so" because Paris often drew on both sides of whatever scrap of cardboard or paper he was working on. Here is the other side of the piece pictured above.

Paris was a center-city Philadelphia fixture when I lived there from 1986-1994. He wore aluminum foil turbans with big cardboard crosses, cinched his pants with ropes, wandered around softly muttering, and slept on stoops using his drawings as both sleeping mats and blankets. If he stayed on the same stoop long enough it too would be drawn on directly. He spent a lot of timed camped out decorating the stoop of the place that is currently the restaurant Alma de Cuba. I called him Paris because that's what he told me his name was but people also called him Holy Joseph.

I know I was not the only person that collected his work - I remember going to parties and sometimes seeing his work on the walls - and other people collected his work as well. John Ollman bought stuff. That must have been awkward - being an outsider art dealer with the real thing camped out down the block. I wonder if he has any plans to ever show those?

One time I took Paris home thinking he could bathe or eat or something but it was no use, he just wandered around my apartment muttering. It was really hard to hear anything he said, he always spoke so softly, but most of what he said didn't make any sense.

I left Philadelphia for Albuquerque in 1994 but a number of years years later took out a small ad in the City Paper describing Paris and asking anybody who might remember him to contact me, especially if they had any info, photos, or work. One guy did! I was given a lead to a homeless shelter that was familiar with Paris!

In 2002 I was able to visit the shelter and the guy in charge had very fond memories of Paris. I think he was a favorite. The timeframe of that guy's and my own experiences with Paris overlap - and he knew Paris liked to draw - but he wasn't aware of the extent of Paris' art life. I was told that they tried to track down Paris' family and find out his real name but were never able to get anything solid - and one day a few years before my visit Paris just stopped coming to the shelter. The director did have a photograph of Paris that he reluctantly parted with to allow me to make a color copy of. My sense is that it was unusual for him to have personal snapshots of these "guests" - Paris must have made an impression on him as well.

Here's the photo. This is pretty much how I remember talking with Paris, except we would be outside over a heating grate, his headpiece would be bigger and gaudier, and instead of blankets he would be covered in drawings. Actually, it looks to me like in this photo he is clutching at least one blanket-drawing. Also take note of the piece of charcoal and eraser on the shelf.

Here are all my images of Paris' drawings. These are all done with crayon on thin cardboard. Lots of religous imagery. Beautiful birds here and here. The brown line drawings are especially faint in these scanned slides but I like the man and the little bird in the left of this one. Here's Jesus walking on water with "God Bless America" written across the bottom. My favorite might be this one because sitting atop this man's staff is another little man - so hard to see in this scan, sorry. What's this one about? Are those white servants waiting on wealthy blacks? Was this a desire or a memory? Most of the drawings that aren't worked on both sides include strange symbols or lettering on the back. Stars and/or moons. Is it Muslim? Similar to the moon and sun in this picture. Many of the buildings in the backgrounds look Middle Eastern.

Last year I e-mailed Philadelphia artbloggers Roberta and Libby asking if they knew anything about Paris and they posted my query on their blog. Nobody contacted me but Roberta's post did include the information that Paris had been included in the show "Found Ground" at Moore's Levy Gallery in Jan. 1991.

Now I have my own blog so I will ask again: Does anybody have any artwork by, photographs of, or remembrances of Paris?

I remember Paris!!!