Anyone who has spent much time around Athens, Ga., has seen Michael Davenport at work. He sets up in various places around town with his easel and canvases and creates his art. A donation bucket sits nearby, and people stop to watch him work and drop money in the bucket.
What’s unusual about Davenport? He has no arms, and he “paints” with his mouth, using markers as his medium. When he was 13, Davenport lost his arms in an electrical accident, but instead of wallowing in his plight, he took art classes as a teenager and didn’t look back.
Living and working in a college town with a rabid fanbase, Davenport’s milieu is Georgia Bulldogs artwork. Most of his pieces portray the classic Georgia Bulldogs logo or Uga, the beloved English bulldog mascot, although his Instagram page shows Atlanta Falcons and (gasp!) Alabama Crimson Tide canvases.
Davenport has been homeless, and robbers have attacked him twice over the past several years. The community has rallied around him with donation campaigns, and adversity hasn’t dampened his spirit.
“People look at it like a struggle, but life is like that. ... God was showing me all along, ‘Keep up your art,’” Davenport told the Red and Black, the University of Georgia student newspaper, in 2021. “Not only is it a good meditation — this is who I am.”
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On Saturday night, my family went to Athens to have dinner for my niece’s 16th birthday. Kayla had her heart set on Texas Roadhouse, and it was crowded. To seat our 11-person party meant that we wouldn’t be able to eat until 9:30. Even dividing our party in half meant a 90-minute wait.
I happened to see Davenport working in front of the restaurant. I’ve seen him for years all around Athens, but I never had the chance to watch him so close up. I decided to take a chance and ask him how much he would charge for the painting he was working on, which depicted Uga with the 2021 and 2022 College Football Playoff trophies flanking him and one paw resting on one of the trophies.
“Normally, I charge $400,” he told me. “But this is the last weekend I’m offering discounts.”
“Oh really?” I replied. He told me that he was going to start doing prints so that people could afford his art if they couldn’t pay the full price.
“I tell you what: name your price,” he continued.
I inhaled a deep breath and took a chance. I decided to offer something low enough to give him a graceful way to refuse but that also wouldn’t break the bank for me if he bit.
“Would you take $100?” I asked.
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” he replied, extending the hook on his right arm. I fist-bumped it.
“Now we’ve shaken on it,” he laughed.
I told him I’d be right back. I let my family know where I was going while they waited on the restaurant porch for our table, and I hoofed it in the rain to the other end of the shopping center across the street, where a branch of my bank was located.
I came back with a crisp $100 bill and watched him work. He was working on the lettering on the piece I was buying, and he talked about how hard he has been working on perfecting his lettering. He impressed me with his ability to carry on a conversation with a marker in his mouth. He took a Sharpie and dabbed it on the wet sidewalk to do shading; his technique was impressive — particularly for someone like me who can’t draw a stick figure.
All the while, the crowd of people waiting for tables watched and admired his work. One family stood mesmerized and watched him for a few minutes before going in to put their name on the list for a table. A little boy of about nine stood by in awe while his family sat on the bench nearby. He eventually walked back over to his parents and came back with a dollar bill to put in the donation bucket.
Other people spoke to Davenport as they entered and exited the restaurant. Some patrons spoke to him as if they had known him forever, while others approached him with the reverence of a local celebrity. He graciously spoke to anyone who approached him without losing focus on his work.
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Davenport asked me what I do for a living, and when I told him that I’m a writer and editor, he asked, “Isn’t it nice to make a living doing something that some people think is a hobby?”
“Yes sir,” I replied.
“There’s something nice about making people happy,” he told me. “Like when I sell paintings at a discount. I do that because it makes people happy. People ask me all the time, ‘Why do you sell yourself short?’ I don’t. I like making people happy.”
It's obvious from watching Davenport work that making people happy is as important as making a living. This is a guy whom most people would say the deck is stacked against, but he perseveres. And he's made a way for himself.
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