I personally think this is a very good subject matter, as it brings up the social questions society needs to address. Art is supposed to effect our emotions. I agree the person looks well groomed and quite posed, as though they were beginning a rehab program; it gives a very clinical effect.

I suppose if my opinion on the subject itself were known - substance abuse - others might think I was a left leaning liberal who views the middle of the political road lies somewhere between Hillary Clinton and Chairman Mao; when I am actually a card carrying, financially contributing Republican. But that is what art is supposed to do,

Art is for the rebel in us all, the medium which allows us to transcend political and social stereotypes set down by conformists of both the left and the right.

I have difficulties choosing which images suits the subject best, the upper one is starkly realistic, what we would expect to see from glancing, if we dare, at the vagrant in the street. The lower one brings out a special something in the man that says I am warm, and alive, there's someone inside which you do not see when you pass me by.

It's as though Yin and Yang were together here, inseparable; for one cannot appreciate the day until one understands there is night.

This is a very long thread as indeed it should be, these images both cause us emotions of pity and indignity; pain for some, guilt for others, approaching heart wrenching for viewing what most of us care to avoid. Never staring into the windows of their souls for fear the affliction might be contagious, or that we might break down and give empathy for their plight, for the paths which they've chosen.

The greatest difficulty of all for me, is to stand back and summize an often hollow phrase which comes to mind, "...there but for the Grace of God, goes I."

Yank My Doodle, It's a Dandy!