The (vegan) gyro from Humanitree House in Augusta, Georgia/ Photos by Michael Stern
By Michael Stern
By Michael Stern
Humanitree House serves food only on Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The rest of the time it is a juice bar, art gallery, crafts boutique, and performance space. Flamboyantly painted walls and dramatic paintings that hang on them say this downtown Augusta enterprise marches to the beat of a different drum.
Baruti Tucker
The art—created by founder Baruti Tucker, who believes in applying paint with bare fingers instead of brushes—depicts African and African American themes. His work ranges from framed oils to a long brick wall where the bricks fuse with the impasto. The aesthetic is respectful, bold, and exalting; its serious bearing is balanced by whimsical artistic creations throughout the cavernous storefront. A little freestanding installation near the juice bar includes statuettes of The Hulk, TV painting personality Bob Ross, a unicorn or two, a tiny dinosaur, and a pair of lovers dressed in royal garb. It is titled “MY BRAIN HAS TOO MANY TABS OPEN.” In the men’s room, a portrait of a shark looms above the toilet, and one of a dolphin is displayed next to the urinal.
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