Father Bruno Segatta wanted to see for himself what was happening at Occupy San Francisco. But since he doesn’t own a digital camera, he took what he had to record the experience: a couple sketchpads, pens and markers.
Segatta arrived in mid-November at the encampment at Justin Herman Plaza, near the San Francisco Ferry Building, and stayed for two days, meeting occupiers and drawing what caught his eye. He walked among the tents, sketching general assembly meetings, people riding power-generating bicycles and TV cameras recording occupiers. During his two-day stay, he produced more than 50 illustrations.
Many of the people he encountered, he says, were displaced or homeless. He also ran into a lot of college and university students. As a retired assistant to the dean of students at Gonzaga University in Spokane and an art teacher for 25 years, he felt an affinity for the people he met. But as an active priest, many of his encounters gave him the opportunity to ponder the question “Quo vadis?” a Latin phrase, with religious connotations, roughly translated as “Whither goest thou?” Segatta finds the question worth asking, whether as an individual, a church or a society.
Passing from one hand to the next, his drawings found their way to Real Change. Segatta says offering his work for others to see is a way to share his journey, so others can reflect on the Occupy movement. And their own lives.