OF THREE YEAR CONCEPTUAL ART PROJECT AND POLITICAL PROTEST AGAINST
HOMELESSNESS AND MILITARISM.
Activist Michael Clift, 45, has travelled on foot or by bicycle nearly 2000 miles as an ongoing conceptual art piece and political protest to bring awareness to the ongoing housing crisis and to raise public awareness of PTSD in the homeless veteran population. The ongoing project titled “American Gypsy: from Paint to Protest” began in 2011 concurrent with the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement that began in September of that year.
Mr. Clift had been instrumental in the organization of the movements’ genesis in the Bay Area of California, and has been politically active since his discharge from the United States Army in 1986. He has been a vocal opponent of any and all forms of exploitation and the abuse of human rights. He is an accredited fine artist and illustrator who has travelled throughout Europe and has paintings and drawings in numerous private and public collections in the United States and abroad.
Mr. Clift began this latest project after personal tragedy forced him to reassess the value and importance of both his personal life and work, and thus began his odyssey with the intent to contribute more fully to world culture and political advocacy.
He is currently making his way to San Francisco to organize a nationwide March of Homeless Veterans and their supporters to promote the film “Battlefield of the Mind”, a film by videographer Fran Strine highlighting the tragedy of homeless Veterans suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) slated for release April. 24.
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