Anthony DeArmas has 20 clay heads sitting in a studio somewhere nearby waiting to be bronzed, but he will have to get to them another day. On Friday, he sat in the sweltering Denver heat selling crafts and spices out of a wooden wagon with a blue cover that says Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
The work, about four hours a week, gives DeArmas a little extra income and helps keep him off the streets.
“I stay in these days,” the 52-year-old former homeless man said. “My illness makes things dangerous for me.”
DeArmas, who suffers from manic depression and arthritis that cripples his ability to sculpt clay, doesn’t see his situation – selling other people’s art for money – as ironic. He sees it as unfortunate.
“When you’re poor, poor, poor, to come up with five grand (for bronze), you can’t,” he says.
So DeArmas’ bare, unbronzed heads remain in limbo, but he doesn’t let it bring him down. He says the craft-cart gig, a vocational project through the coalition, is a good thing.
All of the cart’s items are made by local charitable organizations such as the Denver- based Gathering Place and the Women’s Bean Project.
“It’s a great idea, but the public isn’t supportive,” he says. DeArmas sits back in his chair and scans the crowd on the 16th Street Mall. No one stops.
Tim Marshall, director of residential and vocational services at the coalition, says the project is about more than money.
“Another purpose was to break the stereotype of homeless people and to show that’s inaccurate in a lot of cases,” Marshall says. “These are really nice folks,” he adds.
As part of the coalition’s mission of creating lasting solutions to homelessness, Marshall oversees grant-funded programs that give homeless and formerly homeless people the skills they need to get jobs. The cart project began a year and half ago with a one-time $25,000 grant from the state.
DeArmas, who wears a T-shirt with “victory” boldly inscribed across the front, recalls a time when finding work seemed impossible.
Now he works the cart Fridays, usually from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and life is good. But it could be better. The arthritis in his hands could let up just enough to permit the artist to return to his art. And business could be better as well.
Suddenly, a man walks up to the cart and DeArmas shifts to sales mode.
“Where’s the Adam’s Mark?” the man asks.
Disappointed, DeArmas points down the mall. “That way,” he says.
Staff writer Abbe Smith can be reached at 303-820-1201 or asmith@denverpost.com.
