Inspired Nick paints a different picture
NICK Spencer grew up unloved and neglected, so much so that at the age of eight a social worker found him smashing his way into a can of corned beef in a desperate attempt to feed himself and his starving little sister.
The youngsters had been abandoned by their mum and left to fend for themselves.
READ MORE: 'They raided my cell thinking I was selling drugs'
Whisked away from Scarborough, where he lived, Nick was reunited with a father he had barely seen over the first few years of his life, and was brought up in Barnsley.
But life was no easier for him there, and violence became a normal part of his life.
Despite his upbringing, Nick excelled academically and was a top grade student who could have gone on to university with the promise he showed.
He went back to live with his mum at the age of 14 and obtained A-grade GCSEs in Art and English before a fall out with his mother left him out on the streets just before he was about to do the rest of his exams, meaning he never sat them.
After moving back to Barnsley again a family member began giving the teenager prescription painkillers and morphine, getting him hooked on the drugs and making him pay for them by working for him free in the construction industry.
Over time he dabbled in other drugs, including Ecstasy and LSD, before making a decision that would eventually destroy his life – taking heroin.
The father-of-one sold off all his possessions, lost work, moved out of home and eventually ended up roaming the streets, moving from one city to another, struggling to find a place to call home.
At one time he lived in an abandoned car off Division Street in Sheffield's city centre and survived on a few pounds here and there given by kind-hearted passers-by when he sat begging on the streets.
He hit rock bottom in 2003 when he got a 21-month prison sentence for robbery after he confronted a man who had stolen belongings from him a few days earlier.
And although artistic Nick always knew he could draw, it was only when he was locked up and had time on his hands that the extent of his talent became apparent to others.
In return for tobacco and biscuits, Nick would reproduce photographs inmates had of loved ones in their cells.
Once word of his talent spread among the wings at Doncaster and Armley prisons he would wake up to find photos pushed under his cell door from cons appreciative of his talent.
Prisoners sending letters home to wives, girlfriends and children would also ask him to decorate envelopes with cartoon characters and flowers.
Nick also used to pass his endless days carving statues and objects from blocks of disused soap ends.
He even carved an entire chess set while in Doncaster Prison.
Now free of drugs and building a new life for himself on the outside, Nick spends his days drawing and painting at the Cathedral Archer Project in Sheffield city centre – a project run by Sheffield Cathedral to help those with nowhere to call home.
Nick, who is homeless but sleeps at friends' homes while Sheffield Council looks for somewhere for him to live, started visiting the project's base on Campo Lane for a free breakfast, a shower and to access medical facilities when he was released from prison in 2005.
He started taking an art class run at the centre and eventually, over the years, has ended up running them himself.
His works of art – portraits of his rock star idols including Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Marley – were recently displayed inside Sheffield Cathedral.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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