Christina Benevento on the Coffee Lid Paint Pallet

Overwhelmed by the fast paced hustle and bustle of your life? Wanted to escape? Well, that’s exactly how Lee Rodgers feels, a homeless woman living in Central Park. The outdoors is where Rodgers feels she can breathe again, begin a part of the elements grounds her and makes life bearable. Rodgers is a watercolor artist and an avid bird watcher; she loves to study nature as close as possible. Her study and observation is detailed with a single brush, paper, watercolor set, and her eyes. She watches birds for hours and works on her intricate and at times painstakingly detailed works. The local coffee shop allows her to warm up by the radiator and look over her notes about bird color and characteristics while eating breakfast, she saves the coffee lid to use as her pallet.

Each painting takes about one week to complete stated Corey Kilgannon from The New York Times. She asks for about a hundred dollars a watercolor, which is simply enough money to make it through the week. Rodgers sells her work by word-of-mouth and takes commission from passerby’s that witness her innate talent.

Do you think that more or less people would be interested and purchase Lee Rogers watercolor paintings if she were non-homeless? Does this aspect of an artist living outside in the nature appeal to prospective buyers?

Christina Benevento

Christina Benevento is an art educator, graduate student at Buffalo State, and a mother of two young children.