Finding a Foundation

“I could remember the sound of the gunshots and I ran out the door with no shoes on. I think my mother was too scared because she wouldn’t leave the house.” I sat and listened to Fawzi 'Benny' Benhariz, a local Fremont neighborhood artist in Seattle who I had just met. Our small talk of the summer Solstice festivities quickly took a very personal turn when I asked him about how he became an artist.

At the age of six, he witnessed his brother cheering in the streets after running from military police post-protest in 1975 at the University of Benghazi, Libya. Only moments later, his older brother was shot and many others fell to their death. But not his brother. In his retelling of the event, his brother continued running from MP until he hid under an alcove facade of a storefront, bleeding rapidly. He reprimanded Benny for not wearing shoes, though the sentiment and intent was but superfluous to what he had just witnessed. He was the last person to see his brother before his death.

Four months after this traumatic experience, Benny ceased to speak. When his parents finally gave up on their repeated attempts to break his silence, he was sent away to stay with his grandparents. One afternoon, he sat on the beach with his grandfather who challenged him to stack rocks as he had done for Benny on their previous day trips.

His grandfather set stones in front of him and instructed him to build.

And he did.

Though seemingly minimal and simplistic, building his stone structures helped him grasp a sense of control and peace. It brought him happiness again, and focused his mind on something he could create, rather than remember the destruction that had made him feel so helpless only four months before.

Today, Benny contributes to neighborhood installments as a multi-faceted local artist, working with a variety of mediums including wall mural painting, natural stone sculpture, and chalk. He has resided in Seattle for over twenty years and has been questioned by many in the local media regarding his ‘homeless’ status, as well as his ‘troublemaking’ antics at local pubs. Many publications have honed in on his ‘nuisance’ status in Fremont, perhaps to draw in a little shock value and controversy.

So when I met Benny, on my way to a hair appointment at Rudy’s Barber Shop last week, I had to share his story. Over a couple of beers and about 45 minutes, I learned of his achievements, studies, travels, and art. He has travelled all over the world, earned a philosophy degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, and was even graced with a title and eagles claw, a sacred symbol of grounding and foundation, by the Havasupai Tribe of Arizona.

Speaking with him was also a huge breath of fresh air against the stigmas associated with refugees and the rapidly-growing homeless population in the Seattle metro area. I did not learn or even assume he was homeless until after I began researching other publications that mentioned him. The reason it never occurred is due to the fact that he had accomplished so much in his life. He spoke several languages, and held better social manners than many of the people I meet while out running errands around town. For someone who was able to escape the hostility, violence, and abuse of human rights by the Qadhafi and its supporters, perhaps we might look a little further past the hack job stories written about this individual.

Benny's amazing personal history left me in awe and motivation to create better grounding for myself as well. And he reminded me of the importance of laying a sound foundation for building past my own personal traumas. Masonry, a more conventional version of Benny's art, as I've come to recently learn it professionally, can often be very tedious and challenging, especially if you don’t have a good foundation and a focused sense of direction and structure.

In Benny's case, that grounding is often present, yet intangible. You don't need to live in swanky, hip apartment, own a house, or build a skyscraper to know that you're in good standing. And as long as we have our minds and hearts in a set, stable foundation, what we can build is limitless.