Los Angeles Times

Homeless artist wants to 'be the light' on LA's skid row

LOS ANGELES - He keeps his spray paint cans in an old cooler. His acrylic paints and chalk are stashed in a cracked milk crate. They are piled under a blue tarp beside two large dog kennels. A pair of well-trained pit bulls, Big Ugly and Space Ghost, sniff the air. If a stranger with bad intent ducks into this space, they know what to do.

Crushow Herring ducks out from under the makeshift canopy, squeezing along a chain-link fence, past the jumble of clothes and toiletries in his tent, and emerges at the corner of 5th Street and Central Avenue on skid row in downtown Los Angeles.

He takes a deep breath. The air is damp and cool after an early morning rain, and a man in green track pants and a baggy blue sweatshirt is hanging a damp

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times3 min read
Review: Dua Lipa Is A Pop Star With No Lore On 'Radical Optimism'
Dua Lipa's "Radical Optimism" has a hilarious album cover, two songs about illusionists and what may end up the year's most succulent bass playing. What it doesn't have is the kind of detailed celebrity meta-narrative that's come to define — and to p
Los Angeles Times2 min read
Three Friends Drove From California To Mexico For A Surfing Trip. Then They Disappeared
MEXICO CITY — Last month, two brothers and one of their friends crossed from the United States into Mexico to explore Baja California's famous surf breaks. Pictures posted online by one of the brothers, Callum Robinson, 33, show the men gazing out at
Los Angeles Times2 min read
Three Friends Drove From California To Mexico For A Surfing Trip. Then They Disappeared
Last month, two brothers and one of their friends crossed from the United States into Mexico to explore Baja California's famous surf breaks. One of the brothers, Callum Robinson, 33, posted snapshots of their journey on Instagram, showing the men ga

Related Books & Audiobooks