Before a 79-year-old Peter Phelps underwent treatment for lung cancer, he gave away all of his possessions and money and hoped he would wake up from surgery. To Phelps’ surprise, he woke up from the procedure physically fine, but he also woke up without a home.
Phelps’ treatment plan did not include housing and as a retired senior citizen, he could not afford a home on pension alone. Phelps would return to a shelter following his treatments to recover from chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
At the shelter, Phelps met a member from Hearth, an organization that seeks to end homelessness among the elderly. Hearth provided Phelps with an apartment where he began painting eight hours a day.
Today, Phelps is 81 years-old and has 55 works of art on display in City Hall. On Sept. 21 and 22 there will be a silent auction of all of Phelps’ works and he will donate the proceeds to Hearth. The Director of Institutional Advancement at Hearth, Annie Garmey, said Phelps decided to display his artwork and sell it on his own.
“He really appreciated the work that Hearth did to help get him housing and get him out of the shelter that he was living in, and he just wanted to say thank you,” Garmey said. “It was his very own idea, which is wonderful. He has donated 55 works to us and we will have a silent auction and all of the money will go to us.”
Though Garmey does not know how much revenue Hearth will see from the auction, she said the organization was grateful to have the opportunity to have Phelps’ works.
Phelps paints eight hours a day and gives away many of his paintings to the other formerly homeless, elderly individuals in his building, but is not interested in receiving payment for his work, Garmey said.
“There’s been a lot of interest. We’ve had quite a few phone calls from people who have gone over to see his work at City Hall,” he said.
Lori Berenberg, the director of Berenberg Gallery in Boston, reviewed Phelps’ works and said she was delighted to see his art. Berenberg complimented Phelps’ simplicity and passion that she said was evident in his works.
“In an expressionistic manner, using just a few strokes of color and a lyrical use of line he communicates feelings of loneliness, sadness and joy,” Berenberg said. “It is evident when seeing the breadth of Phelps’s work that he possesses an insatiable passion to create.”
Boston University’s FYSOP Elders co-coordinator Diana Gravallese spent her summer learning about and addressing the issues, such as depression and anxiety, that plague the elderly. Gravallese said Phelps and his artwork are an inspiration.
“I think he is really inspirational,” Gravallese, a College of Communication junior, said. “The fact that he has chosen to, especially after a battle with a terminal illness, set his life on a new path is something you don’t encounter with many people,”
His works have been on display since Aug. 14 and will show until the end of the week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.