Peggy Schaps’ ‘Bag Lady’ Is for Real

She is a bag lady, literally. She is made of a paper bag. So is the angry man on the wall nearby and the toothless bum and the sleeping wino.

The faces are part of a remarkable show, “On the Street/On the Road,” continuing through Feb. 6 at the Brand Library Art Galleries in Glendale. Using paper grocery bags, cardboard, acrylic paint and string, artist Peggy Schaps has created three-dimensional portraits of the homeless that are marvels of familiarity. We have seen these people, or ones very much like them.

The woman in “Bag Lady” has the snarl of street people who constantly mumble or curse as they walk along.

The man in “Little Tokyo Samurai” has a face that’s scraped red and rough from the wind and cold. He pulls on a cigarette as if to suck some warmth into himself.

“Soul Singer,” his hair in beaded corn rows, glows with contentment. Maybe he cherishes a life free of appointments, or maybe the wine has kicked in.

Schaps has been making paper constructions for 10 years. She said some of the works are modeled after individuals while others are amalgams. She saw scores of homeless people every day when she had a studio in downtown Los Angeles, but didn’t think to portray them until 1988 when she moved her studio to Culver City.

“Apparently I was really affected by these people I’d seen for seven years and it just came out when I was away from them,” the artist said.

A few of the constructions are quite abstract; the subject is emotion as much as flesh. “Fleeing Man” is fear on the move. His pursuer may be real or imagined. “Lost Soul” is abject defeat. His face is flattened and smudged, like a shoe that has been in the roadway for days.

“What I wanted to do with the homeless is capture their strangeness, their sadness--the things that awaken the curiosity we have about them,” said Schaps. “I’ll see a bag lady and wonder, Was she young and pretty once? Did she have a better life?”

One of the show’s best pieces, “Faded Memories,” is just such a musing.

The material used by Schaps--ordinary brown bags--adds to the impact of the pieces. Like the homeless, it is more apt to be found blowing down the street than adorning a gallery wall. And paper bags are among the stuff of their lives--a building material, a suitcase, a shoe-repair kit.

Schaps works by moistening the bags slightly, then shaping and painting them.

“Paper is a wonderful medium,” she said. “You can make it look like old boots or fabric or leather.” She has included a large U.S. flag in the exhibit, perhaps as a political comment.

The works on the homeless take up one long wall of the library’s spacious gallery. On the other are earlier constructions by Schaps. Made mainly of painted canvas, they depict the views and visions of a driver on an interstate.

“On the Street/On the Road” will be on display Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 to 9 p.m.; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 12:30 to 6 p.m. through Feb. 6 at Brand Library Art Galleries, 1601 Mountain St., Glendale. Free. For information, call (818) 956-2051.