When Lori Lematta first started selling Street Roots in March, it was to meet her immediate needs — bus tickets, phone minutes, a driver’s license, vet trips for her 10-year-old dachshund Susie.
Now, however, Street Roots gives her a little more than a small income.
“Street Roots and my customers keep me going,” she said. “I wish they knew how much I appreciate them. They’re my foundation right now.”
Street Roots is one of the stepping stones on the way to Lori’s ultimate goal of working in peer support through therapeutic art. Right now, she is volunteering at four organizations, gaining experience in just that. She is teaching art at the women’s day center Rose Haven, art journaling at Old Town Clinic, and doing office work at Young Audiences.
“It just helps me in my mental health and alcohol recovery,” she said. “It’s just my process.”
Art has been a part of Lori’s life since she was a little girl.
“When I was a little kid I wanted to be an architect, so I would make up floor plans. But I always had an eye for art, so I would buy other people’s art and go to museums and just learn about it through osmosis.”
She went to community college, but after a year, she moved to Los Angeles to learn about the world.
“After going through the whole book of ‘What Color is Your Parachute,’ it said I should be a postal worker. So I threw the book in the garbage and said, ‘OK, what do I really like?’ And I said, ‘I like music and art.’”
She signed up for an entertainment business temp agency and worked her way up at Island Records. However, when her company was bought out, her values no longer aligned with the organization’s, and she decided it was time to head back to the place she grew up – the Pacific Northwest.
But mental and physical health issues, including her alcoholism, stood in the way of employment, and not long after she left her last job, her house caught on fire.
“I just couldn’t take care of myself anymore and ended up being homeless,” she said.
Now, Lori has been living in a clean and sober facility at Central City Concern for more than seven months, and has been sober for about a year. Her next step is living in her own space. She’s currently on a waiting list for housing.
It’s her art that helps her through some of the darker times in her life. If her dream came true, she said, she would curate two connected galleries. One would be a more traditional gallery, where she would find artists to show. The other gallery would serve as both a teaching space for students struggling with mental illness and homelessness, and a place to show their work.
Street Roots helps her earn a little bit of income for the things she needs while she waits for housing, volunteers, takes classes and goes to meetings — working to get closer to her ultimate goals.
“My customers are really important to me, especially with my depression,” she said. “Seeing my customers and even the people walking by, they reflect happiness to me.”
You can find Lori outside of the Pearl Bakery from 6:30 to 8:30 in the mornings.