Earl King Swanigan was born on January 14, 1964, to Collier and Lorine Swanigan.
Earl was a constant presence on the streets of Hudson, often seen carrying a found piece of plywood or piece of furniture that he would peddle to store fronts and to pedestrians who might pass by one of the outdoor places he would set up shop on the sidewalks of the city. Earl became a regular visitor to places like TSL, where Claudia Bruce would print images for him to use in his work – Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Mohammed Ali, and many others. Claudia and Earl discovered that they were both born in northeast Mississippi and both migrated north to pursue a life of art.
Not without his share of controversy, Earl was a passionate artist with an expansive output of work. His spirit lingers in Hudson’s rowdy, often chaotic, and, sometimes, general dysfunction.
Earl died on January 5, 2019, at Berkley Medical Center, in West Virginia.
