Now, he alternates between sleeping on the kitchen floor at a friend's apartment and on a couch at another friend's business. Before that, I had concocted stories, but I only told them verbally. It's a thrill, and I'm having so much fun. Browning also is president of the StreetLife Gallery, a cooperative of current and formerly homeless artists in Seattle. Browning began exhibiting his artwork, which focuses on the child abuse he endured from his parents, at the gallery in 1992, about four years after he learned to draw.
Browning now paints with acrylics.
The prolific artist, who first became homeless after his parents died about 15 years ago and he began seeing visions, said his work is an expression of bad childhood memories. A recent painting of a dog and a boy with their heads switched depicts how he felt when a parent once asked why he couldn't be more like the dog he owned as a child. The art here is about what the people care about. And it lets the viewers realize that these are real people. The newspaper, which he started in 1994, has a monthly circulation of 27,000 and is sold on the streets of Seattle by homeless vendors who want to make money.