November 1, 2007 – As a passer-by admires his work, Eric Kluin, a Newbury St. artist in Boston, MA, shades salmon colored pastel into the woman figure he has been working on for three years. Having worked on most of his artwork for years at a time, he says that he knows a piece is complete, “When someone walks by and decides they want it.” Having used the sidewalk as his studio for 12 years, without a gallery to exhibit his creations, he is forced to sell his work for cheaper than he would like. On average, his artwork sells for $300 to passers-buyers.
November 1, 2007 – Former University of Michigan art student, Eric Kluin, is found working outside of Sonsie on Newbury St. in Boston, MA, every day of the week throughout most of the year. Kluin has considered the sidewalk his studio for 12 years, since the restaurant’s grand opening. Kluin came to Brookline, MA, where he currently resides in a tiny studio, after being convinced to move to the Boston area by a woman heroin addict whom he met at a halfway house in Arizona. He no longer stays in touch with his former traveling friend.
November 1, 2007 – After delicate application of salmon colored pastel to a piece of artwork he has labored over for three years, Eric Kluin, an artist often found outside of the restaurant Sonsie on Newbury St. in Boston, MA, gently blends the color into the canvas to shade the side of his character’s leg. Kluin often fears overworking a piece and claims it is one of the most frustrating aspects of being an artist. The piece he is working on is inspired by tarot cards and is being created due to the suggestion of a friend.
November 1, 2007 – The rugged hands of Eric Kluin blend salmon pastel into the leg of a woman figure he has drawn here on Newbury St. in Boston, MA. Kluin works on the sidewalk every day of the week, three seasons out of the year. On the hot days of spring and summer, he is often seen without a shirt; during the fall, he says that he fears winter. In jest he mentions, “ In the winter, I hope for spring.”
November 1, 2007 – An easel and art supplies, belonging to Eric Kluin, sit outside of Sonsie on Newbury St., Boston, MA, and wait for the artist to get back from a coffee break. With two empty cups hidden behind the black crates, Kluin requires a lot of caffeine to keep him going as he works. The artist strategically stations himself close to both a Starbucks and an art supply store.
November 19, 2007 – The unfinished roof on a barn on Brookwood Farm, part of the Blue Hills Reservation, in East Milton, MA, exhibits the inability of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), due to increasingly low budgets, to maintain Massachusetts state parks. Additional repairs are needed on several broken windows, its rotting foundation, and its peeling and fading red paint. Former MA Governor Mitt Romney bequeathed current Governor Deval Patrick with an overwhelmingly large deficit causing Patrick to cut the operating budget of the DCR at the expense of the land.
November 19, 2007 – Behind the Houghton Pond visitor center on the Blue Hills Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA, which is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), trash is scattered along the banks of the water, coexisting with the wildlife as part of the ecosystem the state is supposed to care for. Due to a significantly low budget, the DCR is unable to fix such vital issues.
November 19, 2007 – Massachusetts’s state park employees exhibit concern about erosion and fallen trees on hiking trails that run throughout the Blue Hill Reservation in East Milton, MA. Trails are unable to be maintained to the extent they should be due to understaffing caused by the low budget of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, a problem that has its roots in former Governor Mitt Romney’s administration.
November 19, 2007 – Don McCasland, an employee at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory Science Center, explains past efforts to remove graffiti from the top of Eliot Tower on Blue Hill, part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA. He mentions that due to their significantly low budget they were only able to repaint park benches and trashcans, leaving many existing problems behind.
November 19, 2007 – Despite past efforts to remove graffiti from Eliot Tower on Blue Hill, near the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory Science Center, part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA, there are still countless visible marks of vandalism remaining. The administration of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has left current Governor Deval Patrick with a $1.3 billion budget deficit, making it very difficult to improve the conditions of state parks to the necessary extent.
