I'm Jason Howarth, an urban,aerosol-street artist, plus acrylic canvas painter, with fun but reputable commissions such as Pandora Maxwell's house in Oxford, Carfax Alley way off the High Street, Oxford and including the Shezan Restaurant mural, The Albert Street Amy Winehouse mural Camden, Wicked Camper Vans Waterloo London and The Lush art Mural in Sydney Redfern as well as the Manchester attack tribute Candle in the wind mural & The Grenfell Tower Harrow Club W10 spray community mural.

 

I'm based mainly in oxford and London & I'm passionate about spreading positive vibes and good feel. For many years I had different jobs such as working in the In and Out club Piccadilly London, web designer, I also worked on building sites and in factories. All these jobs bought in money and being employed was great but I felt so many people were struggling on the streets and just in life in general so I decided to put together this homeless project to give out comfort and healthy gift parcels to those struggling on the streets in London and Oxford mainly and on occasion other places too. I felt I wanted to try and get somewhere with my artistic talents so have been a freelance artist and designer for the past 7 years, as well as managing Hoodyhandout plus training and planning to swim the channel.

 

Why am I doing Hoody Handout? I too have had some spells of being homeless so I know how hard it is. But I’ve been really lucky, I’ve had a lot of love and support from my amazing family and friends. I’ve made many positive changes in my life and things are going reasonably well for me.

 

I know life can be really tough and I also know that it's only the love and support from other people that gets you through the dark times. Sometimes all it takes is one kind person to lift you up and make a difference.

 

So I decided to use my talents and my experience and go out on the streets to help. It started with just hoodys. My aim was to give out something useful but also to make the people I gave to smile, I wanted to make them a little warmer inside as well as out. I also wanted to give them something useful and something healthy so I've started giving out healthy snack bars, vitamin C, fruit bars and water as well as wet wipes, plasters and other useful things.

 

I’m not an organisation – they’re great and do great work – it’s just me and my hard work that raises the money, puts the packs together and goes out on the streets to hand it all out (with the occassional help from a friend or ten).

 

It’s been a real experience doing Hoody Handout over the past few years. I’ve gained a lot from it and I’ve been blown away by the support from family, friends and strangers too. It’s been inspiring to know that one person can make a positive difference and I hope I can carry on making a difference for many years to come.