Stu, a "street father" who looks out for other rough sleepers, is used to people walking past him every day and not taking notice.
But street artist CDH is hoping his portrait of Stu, which he has entered into the Archibald Prize, will change that.
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Stu, who has been camping out on the streets of Melbourne for years, is known by another name to those he helps: Streetfather. Video courtesy Jacob Oberman.
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The Streetfather
Stu, who has been camping out on the streets of Melbourne for years, is known by another name to those he helps: Streetfather. Video courtesy Jacob Oberman.
Last year Stu and about 20 other rough sleepers were displaced from Hosier Lane – the city alley that attracts hundreds of tourists every day for its street art – after the Marriner Group boarded up external alcoves at the adjacent Forum Theatre.
"They covered up all the fire exits when they were closing the building down anyway to do renovations," says Stu. "The cops came along and they said 'now move'."
Around that time Frank Camorra – owner of MoVida restaurant, which is also next to the laneway – spoke out about a growing prevalence of homelessness in the area, saying it was "not acceptable", and that tourists coming to see the art were being abused.
What few people may know is that much of the art on Hosier Lane's walls was painted by rough sleepers. Artists such as Jubs, Milo and Soloe contributed as much as 20 per cent, says CDH, who is not homeless himself.
And they are good artists, too, says Stu.
"On Saturdays young school-aged kids would come in looking for [the artist] Soloe, looking for Jubs," he says. "That's their day out – to come into town, look for the boys, get them to show them something else [they've painted]. These are kids from private schools."
But those artists rarely paint on Hosier Lane any more, and neither does CDH.
"If people that I'm friends with like [street artists] Afro and Acme and Soloe can't paint in Hosier Lane [because they don't feel welcome], I don't want to paint in Hosier Lane," says CDH. "I'm not interested if it isn't a space for everyone."
Stu says he wants more people to understand that moving homeless people on doesn't fix the problem – it only endangers people who are already struggling.
"They're making people that already feel unsafe feel even more unsafe," he says.
Stu says he had been living in and around Hosier Lane for 10 years, as it's close to the nearby Living Room drop-in centre, and has been on the streets for 13 years in total. But since being forced out of the area, he says, he has been subjected to violence from passers-by.
At one point he was king hit in the back of the head. He still suffers physical symptoms from the injury.
"It put me in hospital for nearly three weeks," says Stu. "I lost the feeling in my arms – all because I didn't want to fight with this person who was inebriated on alcohol, and I turned my back on them. That's what I got for that."
To highlight Stu's situation, CDH painted his portrait on one of the boards taken from the Forum, using some of the techniques homeless artists invented to make their painting tools go further – such as mixing in dirt with the paint. He used a discarded rag to apply the paint, bunching it up at the end to create a hard tip for finer lines.
He doesn't expect the portrait to be announced as one of the finalists in the 2017 Archibald Prize on Thursday.
"I don't think I'm the right kind of painter and I don't think Stu's the right kind of subject," he says.
"But Stu's done a lot of good work for people and his story is a story that would never be told otherwise.
"It's really about the gesture of putting him into the competition – it's not about whether or not he's a finalist."
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