Youngster shows his true colors

BANGOR — Painting a picture of 17-year-old Isaac, one of the homeless teen-agers who calls the streets of the city his home, isn’t easy.

On the surface, Isaac is the prototype MTV teen-ager — short unprofessionally cropped hair, well-worn blue shirt untucked over his hanging-from-the-hips pants, and a half-dozen chains attached to a belt loop and dangling down his left thigh.

Delve deeper into this picture, however, and there isn’t just another troubled teen unable to deal with life in the system. There is a complex, thought-provoking eccentric young man who is very artistically talented with a pencil, pen, or paintbrush.

“Some people think I’m crazy,” Isaac says, smoking a cigarette while standing under cover from a recent night’s rain. “I don’t think I am. I just think I see things differently.”

Which shows predominantly in his artwork.

He will not paint the Mona Lisa for its beauty. Instead, he might produce half of her face melting away in a tragic scream. All just to stretch the limits of the acceptable.

But the minute details in his drawings are simply incredible.

He began drawing at the age of 2 and hasn’t stopped since.

“I like to draw surrealistic stuff,” he said. “It stretches the imagination. I’m not really into all this reality-based stuff.”

His pen also might someday be his ticket off the street.

While living on the street, he has sketched numerous drawings and offered to sell them to passers-by. He has painted T-shirts, apartments and cars.

Many have purchased his works of art for a dollar or two — enough for him to buy a pack of cigarettes or grab a bite to eat.

Isaac has been homeless for close to two years, hopping back and forth between Bangor and Portland with regularity. His father is in jail, he says, and his mother has spent time at the Augusta Mental Health Institute.

After time spent bouncing around the state’s foster care system, Isaac went out on his own.

“That wasn’t for me,” Isaac said. “I like my Mom and all. She’s cool, but she’s crazy. I just can’t live like that.”

Isaac doesn’t go to school now, and he hasn’t since he became homeless two years ago after his family split up. He last went to school in the Skowhegan area where his family had lived.

Some of his artwork is on display as colorful, albeit well-hidden graffiti at different spots around the city. As he stood looking over some of his paintings recently, he frowned upon some of the more raw, vulgar word graffiti which the Department of Transportation constantly has to paint over.

“If people didn’t write some of that stuff, they wouldn’t have to paint over it,” he said.

Isaac turns 18 in less than a month. Once he hits that age, he will no longer be allowed to frequent the Shaw House. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do then. But he’s not worried about it.

“I can’t worry about that right now,” Isaac said. “I’ll worry about that next month when it happens.”

In that way, he is like many homeless people. The future is just that — in the future.