‘The Trashman’ Depends on Love for his Inspiration,
written by Joel Clemons, of the Times Tribune staff.
Date: September 5, 1980
Giovanni Clifton Panciera – Also known as The High Priest of Trash, The Trashman, Snuffy, and The Snuff – became intensely reflective. He cupped his head in his hands and didn’t answer the question for a full minute.
Finally, he blurted out, “Loving.”
That’s what he says is the inspiration behind his work. He’s an artist who specializes in colorful custom walls.
But he wanted to talk for a few minutes about “love” and why it’s perhaps more important to him than someone else.
Panciera, reared back East in the Washington-Northern Virginia area, had no family life until he was 13, when his father “bought” him from his mother.
“I was 4-foot-9 and weighed 69 pounds when Dad asked what he could give her for that kid.She told him $75 and get that blankety-blank kid outta here. Then my stepmother became the biggest influence in my life. The love she had for me as a son gave me the feeling of someday having something,” he said.
He went on to high school where he was the only freshman on the football team and elevated himself to hero status when he scored a touchdown his first time with the ball. The newspapers whooped it up for Panciera and he remained a tough fixture on the team for four seasons. In the next few years, he worked at a variety of jobs – from running an art gallery to display manager for a store in Washington. He even directed the Cherry Blossom Ball for the Vice President for three years in a row.
That was not, however, the life for him. “Butterflies are free,” he decided, and that’s how he wanted to be.
Panciera went to work on the maintenance staff at posh Ravenwood Towers in Falls Church, Va., where the normal reaction to him was “Look at that hippie!”
“Then, they saw the Trash Man out feeding the squirrels and other animals and a congressman in the building put me on TV. Then people started looking at The Trashman.
Love led Panciera to California, as well. He was walking down a hallway in the apartment building back in Virginia when he saw a “lady” in front of him.
“Lord, bring me a butterfly like that,” he prayed.
Before long, it was off to California where he settled down in Mountain View with his “lady.”
That romance is off for now, and at 37, Panciera is collecting $31 a week in unemployment pay and sleeping on the floor in his friend’s apartment.
“That’s why I don’t have matching shoes,” he said, dead serious.
"This lady, the other day, told me she loved my work but she questioned my shoes and that hurt my feelings. She said I should drop The High Priest of Trash but I can’t. All those people who believed in me gave me that.
An accident back in Virginia led Panciera to the world of art. While carrying Venetian blinds up a metal stairway, he slipped and ended up with 17 stitches in his hand, putting him out of work for awhile.
“But The Trashman don’t like to sit still and The Trash Man found out he could paint a straight line.”
Since he’s been in Mountain View, Panciera has put his mark on the walls of several apartments but he takes the most pride in his efforts at St. Joseph’s Church there.He applied his artistic touch to the area surrounding statues of the Virgin Mary and Joseph. “It made it awful beautiful,” he said.
Earlier that day, he had received a letter from the priest at the church, thanking him.
“That father didn’t know how long I’ve waited for that.”
Panciera stole an altar plate from a church at age 11 and it had been heavy on his conscience since. Now he feels relieved. His painting at St. Joseph’s helped.
Aside from love, butterflies have been the inspiration for Panciera’s life and art and he surrounds himself with sayings such as:“Ladies are the closet things on earth to angels and butterflies. You never know when they’re coming. You never know when they’re going. But if one lights upon you, it could last forever.”
When he tackles a custom wall project, he paints what he feels like.
“If people don’t like what I do, I’ll paint it white and charge the minimum labor wages,” he said.
Panciera loves his new life in California. Just one thing worries him. “People out here don’t appreciate all the beauty they have for free.”
He refers to his completed jobs on the Peninsula as “places I’m honored to paint.”
He declares “money is not the object” of his painting and he has spent months perfecting a single job. He wants a chance to display his talents on the Peninsula. In fact, he’d love to tackle the University Avenue underpass in Palo Alto.
"I’d paint something beautiful on it that no one could come near,” he said.
And if all else fails, Panciera contends he can “dig a ditch as well as anybody else.”
“I am a beautiful person,” he said, with eyes full of tears, “and for once in my life, I’m free.”
