Richard Hutchins, the homeless artist who has become an internet star

Without a doubt, it could be said that Hutchins is a self-made man, who has gone from being homeless and in jail, to being one of the most renowned artists on the Internet who is sweeping the famous.

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Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, he grew up in one of the first federal public housing projects in the United States. Later he moved to Los Angeles to be able to dedicate himself to what he was most passionate about, painting. There he started in an art studio until one day he landed in jail.

Hutchins was clear about it, although he was in prison he could not stop painting, it was time to experiment with painting with the only material he had at his disposal: envelopes, toothpastes, chocolate wrappers and others, all this using a brush made with the hairs of his waxed beard.

When he was finally released, Hutchins had been left homeless and without a study due to a fire. He spent time living on the beaches in the area until he finally ended up in a homeless shelter on Skid Row for six years.

Until one day he ran into Charlie “Rocket” Jabaley, the former manager of rapper 2 Chainz in a Los Angeles store. They both struck up a conversation and when he asked him what his dream was, Hutchins replied: “My dream is to go into a museum one day and see one of my paintings hanging on the wall.” After this initial conversation, Jabaley took the artist to a store. of art where he bought up to 1,700 euros in painting material for Hutchins to paint again.

From there Jabaley and his team created a website for Hutchins to sell his art, including the 250 envelopes he had painted while in jail. Four hours after the opening of the website, they managed to sell multiple works for a total of 42,000 euros.

Since then, Hutchins has become an internet phenomenon, earning more than € 170,000 in just a few months, with buyers such as Oprah Winfrey, 2 Chainz, Steve Harvey and Will Smith.

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