Painting the Reality of Homelessness

Like many of her struggling fellow artists, painter Patty Sue Jones for several years was stuck in a cheap loft in Skid Row. But while her environment might not have been the most desirable, it provided the subject for work of which she is now proud, a series of 15 paintings of homeless people.

“These people were my neighbors for five years,” said Jones, who left Skid Row in 1987 and now lives in Highland Park. “To most people, street people are a part of the urban landscape. People drive by and don’t see them. Living down there is pretty isolating, and I wanted to do something about it (by) doing the paintings.”

Three of Jones’ paintings are included in “Reality--Not Just Another Pretty Picture,” an exhibition at the Long Beach Art Assn. Gallery of more than 100 paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations depicting the homeless condition. The artists featured in the exhibition say they hope their works will break down stereotypes of the homeless--and help raise money to better their condition.

“I’d like people to look at these photos and paintings and not see filthy bums, but just people that are having a struggle,” said photographer and cinematographer Stanley D. Newton, who has been taking pictures of the homeless for about two years. “Then I’d like them to see a bit of themselves, ‘cause I don’t care where they live--everybody has a bit of a struggle. We all pretty much live month-to-month, and we all can be brought down (by a financial tragedy).”

Curator and artist Heather Green, who mounted the exhibition “to bring people together that are sincerely committed to humanity,” said she believes art can be used “as a non-threatening tool” to bring in people who might either ignore or just not see the homeless issue otherwise.

“If you can touch their minds first, then you can touch their hearts,” said Green, who put together a similar, but smaller-scale exhibition at the Ash Grove Gallery in Hollywood last year. “Homelessness is just too strong of an issue to let go by, and in some way, this work has a much greater image when it’s from all of us together.”

The exhibition includes the work of 14 painters, sculptors, photographers and muralists. Also included are five films (“Addressless,” “In the Wee Wee Hours,” “Justiceville,” “Lost Angeles”

and ‘Street Sweep”) on the homeless, which will be shown daily. In addition, a reception featuring performances by homeless musicians and poets will be held Sunday (at 2 p.m.), and a fund-raiser and public forum also featuring homeless musicians and poets will be held Sept. 16 (at 7 p.m.).

“I’m asking people to bring just whatever they can afford,” said Green, noting that one homeless man has said he would bring a can of food so that he would feel that he was contributing and was therefore eligible to attend. “But I would be thrilled if we could raise $1,000 to give to the (Second Harvest) Food Bank (of the Greater South Bay), which in recent months has been robbed of more than $10,000 worth of equipment and supplies.”

Green said that many services, including the gallery space and food for the reception, have already been donated for the exhibition, which has been funded in part by a National-State-County Partnership grant. She added that several local service organizations, including Catholic Charities, Christian Outreach and the Salvation Army, have linked up with the exhibition, providing information for both the homeless and those who would like to help them. In addition, flyers inviting homeless people to the show, reception and public forum are being passed in various spots where the homeless are known to congregate.

“Normally someone that’s really poor doesn’t feel like they should be walking in this gallery. Most homeless people aren’t invited to things like this, but this time they’re being sought out to come,” Green said.

In addition to cash donations, Green is asking visitors to the gallery to bring items such as canned food, clothing, toys, toilet paper and laundry detergent. The artists themselves will donate 10% to 50% of proceeds from works that are sold during the show, although they say selling their art is not a primary focus this time around.

“I’m full of a lot of Angst and passion to what is happening,” said sculptor Cynthia R. Ebin, who has six pieces in the show. “I’m just trying to touch somebody with my sculpture. I want to affect them--people need to realize that they have to do something.”

Ebin’s works show portions of men’s and women’s bodies, made of clay that is fired in ashes and soot, and chipped and cracked to show that “man is breaking.” Her “Synergy,” which represents “a composition of all men together,” was created specifically for this exhibition and attempts to show “that we’re all the same--we’re all part of the same roots.”

But in showing the common humanity of homeless people, the artists interviewed talked about varying aspects of that humanity that they were trying to depict.

“What I thought was so sad was the isolation (of the homeless),” said Pat Berger, whose painting, “No Place to Go,” shows two men who are sitting near each other in a park by City Hall but yet “not relating at all.” Her other works depict scenes such as a lone, elderly man hanging his head, and a family trying to make a home in an “urban campground.”

Stacy Rowe, an anthropologist and photographer, uses her work to focus on the small, daily trials and triumphs of homeless people. “There’s a lot of creativity and dignity and tenacity among the homeless population,” she said. “Things like washing your hair, bathing, going to the bathroom and eating dinner--things that we do on a daily basis and take for granted--are daily struggles that take up so much of their energy and creativity. They have to have a whole strategy just to take care to the tasks of daily life.”

Painter Jones, who uses “kind of washy backgrounds--to show that these people could be anywhere, not just in L.A.,” depicts homeless people in their attempts to feel comfortable in their homes on the street. “I can’t imagine how you could be peaceful sleeping on the street, but yet he really is, and he looks like he’s dreaming,” said Jones, looking at her painting of a middle-aged man whom she passed near her former apartment one night.

Another of her works shows two homeless men playing a game of chess. “They’re very contented and intent. Even though they’re on the street, they’re totally concentrating on the game of chess,” she said.