Nearly every day for the past two years, Patch has seen Jeff Source walking around on the streets of Waterford or New London, wearing his black backpack.
Source, 54, often wears sunglasses and usually wears dark colors. In an interview with Patch Wednesday, he said he is an artist who spends most of his time walking and being inspired by the world.
“I am constantly creating,” Source said. “I am constantly taking in images… I am constantly being inspired taking in imagery.”
His last name is not really Source, but that is what he prefers to be called. He said he believes in Source, or God, “or whatever you want to call it,” and he feels love for Source in everything he does.
“Source, the stream all around us, in us, in everything,” Source said. “You want to call that God or Goddess or Buddha or Krishna or whatever name you choose to give that, to me it is all one. It is all the same it, it is all flowing through all of us.”
Source said he wakes up most days and begins to walk from his home in New London, oftentimes walking as far as Niantic and back. He said he couldn’t give an estimate on the amount of time he walks for or the distance he walks because he “doesn’t think that way."
Source grew up in New London and still lives in New London at the homeless shelter at St. James Episcopal Church. Along with walking and running, he likes to go swimming at Ocean Beach and Waterford Beach and do his art at the library.
He has submitted his art to the Hygienic in New London and to an art show that will give proceeds to the homeless shelter at St. James Church. He said he avoids all alcohol and drugs and finds his peace in walking.
“I choose to see everything in my life as a positive,” Source said. “If I’m feeling angry or anxious or fear or whatever I will automatically pivot my mind into a positive place. Into a place of love and peace and into what I know is true that I when I focus my mind in a positive place positive things are going to happen.”
Editor's Note on Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m.: Mr. Source's real name is Jeff Samms and he is currently on probation from a 2010 conviction of two counts of second-degree stalking, which is a misdemeanor, and one count of risk of injury to a child, which is a felony. He was charged by police on June 1, 2008. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Brett