By Anne Gunn
Portland, OR — Local homeless man Greg Ferber was mistaken for a hipster last week by local coffee shop owners Lucy Stone and Dallas Smith. Thinking he was purposefully living off the grid, they featured his belongings as art pieces for sale in their coffee shop.
Stone said, “We found him living in the alley behind our coffee shop. Maybe you’ve heard of our store? It’s called Earth Beans and everything we use and sell is organic, locally sourced, grass fed, and free range. Our method is original, which means we don’t use much modern technology and do things by hand. Everything is produced, from growing and roasting our own beans to making our own drink-ware and pastries from scratch using what we grew on our farm. We even built the tables and equipment ourselves. It might not meet code, and we only produce enough to sell about 30 cups of coffee and a couple of pastries a month, but it’s pure. Please don’t publish that thing about not meeting code.”
Smith added, “We thought he was purposefully living a grassroots-style life when we found him in a refrigerator box behind our store. We saw his bag of recyclables and his collection of blankets and pans and thought to ourselves, ‘This guy really gets it. He’s not afraid to live the way we were meant to.’”
Smith and Stone mistook the man’s personal belongings as progressive art pieces and displayed them in their coffee shop. Within days all the pieces were purchased by the coffee shop’s patrons.
Randy Santez, who purchased Ferber’s rusty shopping cart, said, “I saw that piece and I knew I had to have it. I’m going to display it in my living room and perhaps use it as a coffee table and conversation piece. I immediately connected to Greg Ferber’s work. I can’t say that everyone else understood it like I do.”
Another art lover, who prefers to remain anonymous, said, “I saw Randy buy the shopping cart and I quickly bought a frying pan with no handle so that others wouldn’t think I didn’t appreciate and understand Greg’s artwork. I think I’ll put it on my mantle as a centerpiece.”
Ferber reported that Earth Bean’s art exhibit brought in slightly over $2,000 for him. Ferber plans to use that money toward a bus ticket out of Portland and a deposit on an apartment. He looks forward to finding work and living like a normal person again in a city where cost of living is more reasonable.
A version of this post was first published on annemgunn
*****
About the Author
Anne lives in Myrtle Beach, SC with her husband, baby boy and yappy dog. In the free time she doesn’t have she likes to sleep, run, work on her zombie novel, and catch up on her Netflix shows.