A local artist who has been homeless for five years is gaining national attention for his artwork, and is getting help finding a home after one of his drawings was shared thousands of times on social media.
A Facebook post featuring Claudemier Bighetty’s artwork has been shared over 5,000 times, and resulted in a flood of support — including help trying to find him a home and reconnecting him with his family.
Bighetty said people are recognizing him in the streets now. “When I’m drawing something out there, they’re like, ‘you’re that guy, you’re that guy from Facebook!’ Like some total strangers,” he said.
Part of the credit goes to Jay Mousseau, who originally posted Bighetty’s pen drawing on Facebook after purchasing it off of him in a parking lot.
WATCH | Claudemier Bighetty and Jay Mousseau share their story
Homeless for five years, Claudemier Bighetty’s life is slowly changing with the help of social media and some new friends. 3:46
In his original post, Mousseau highlights Bighetty’s tremendous skill and refers to him as the Indigenous Picasso.
“Never judge a book by its cover … You never know someone’s skills or talent they have,” Mousseau said in the original post.
After that post gained widespread popularity, Mousseau set out to find Bighetty. He spent over a week searching for him until he was finally able to locate Bighetty under a Winnipeg train bridge, where he currently lives.
“I showed him his post. I seen his face glow and light up, and I seen how happy it made him,” said Mousseau.
Joshua Mousseau (left), Jay Mousseau (centre left), and Brandan Campell (right), visit Claudemier Bighetty everyday. The three men often bring Bighetty food, outdoor equipment, art commissions and good news when they visit. (Jonathan Ventura/ CBC)
Mousseau, his brother Joshua Mousseau and friend Brandan Campell have kept visiting Bighetty every day since they were first able to locate him.
“I love these guys, they are the best thing that has ever happened to me, they keep my head on straight,” said Bighetty.
The social media post currently has over 800 comments of support, but its impact goes well beyond likes and shares.
New fans of Bighetty’s artwork have dropped off canvas, art supplies, a working cellphone, food and have started commissioning original pieces.
Recently, Bighetty’s work has been auctioned off online. His first piece sold for $225 to a buyer in Ottawa.
Mousseau has also started organizing with the Galerie d’art Riverside in Wakefield, Que., which will be hosting five of Bighetty’s original pieces.
Finding family again
The post has done more than create demand for Bighetty’s art — it also reconnected him with family who’ve been searching for Bighetty but have been unable to locate him until now.
Bighetty’s son and brother reached out to Mousseau on Facebook, and was able to help reconnect the family members.
Claudemier Bighetty reunited with his brother Gordon Bighetty Jr. (Submitted by Jay Mousseau)
With the coldest months of the year approaching, Mousseau has started a GoFundMe campaign to help Bighetty find a warm home for the winter.
“I wanted to lift him up, because that’s what we do as Indigenous people,” said Mousseau.
He hopes that Bighetty won’t be on the streets for much longer.
Recently, Bighetty has also been approached by Ndinawe Safe House to help him find a place to live and provide him with culturally appropriate support.
Between help from Ndinawe and the GoFundMe, Mousseau believes Bighetty will be off the streets and in a hotel this week — a transitional step to finding a permanent home.
For the artist, he says it’s all a bit overwhelming, but he’s enjoying the positive support and says that he’s going to continue making art.
“I’ve been through it all. I’ve seen it. I’ve been in and out, and … because of my art work, it’s keeping me grounded,” Bighetty said.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
