Street Artist

Michael Davenport lost his arms when he tangled with an electrical wire while climbing a tree at the age of 13. He almost didn't make it. Now 30-something years later he can be seen several days a week outside of the Broad Street Bar & Grill in downtown Athens doing drawings of University of Georgia mascot "Uga" with his mouth. The ABH has done a few stories on him throughout the years. We received a call recently tipping us off that he would be appearing on the Oprah show. I photographed and did video of him over 3 or 4 visits at his regular spot just 2 blocks from the paper. I talked with him about his desire to be a good role model and inspire people not to give up on their lives. His story touched my heart. I let him in. He told spectator after spectator that we were doing a story on him, that he was going to be on Oprah. He was so proud and it made me feel good to have a small part in it.

Michael Davenport, who lost his arms in an electrical wire accident at 13, works on a drawing with people looking on Saturday Aug. 8, 2009, in downtown Athens.

Then I got the word. It wasn't true that he was going on Oprah. He had told me and several others all the details down to the day he was flying out to Chicago. He had asked me to please bring him copies of the paper and my video so he could take it to show Oprah. I felt like a fool for believing it all. We were in so deep at the paper that we ran his story anyway just omitting the Oprah stuff and focusing on his tragedy and triumph. We had already put in so many man hours and he still has an amazing story. I wasn't finished with the video when I got news of the deception. I didn't even want to finish it, but I did anyway. I spent hours on it. Somewhere in all those hours of editing, listening to his voice, watching him draw, I decided to see past the deception. He is still an inspiration.






Street artist Michael Davenport works on a drawing outside of the Broad Street Bar & Grill Saturday Aug. 8, 2009, in downtown Athens.