Consider a new portrait exhibit a neighbourly introduction to a few Red Deer residents whose difficult life experiences have left them without a place to call home.
Being Human: Portraits of Homelessness, by local artist and Advocate reporter Lana Michelin, will be on display at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery until August 10.
As a journalist, Michelin said she has covered all sides of the homeless crisis except those who are most affected which is why her acrylic paintings include a short write-up about the lives of the 10 participants who agreed to have their portrait painted.
She said it’s important for the public to realize that everyone has challenges. Some problems are much harder to overcome, but everyone does their best to cope, like the individuals featured in the portraits.
“These are all people like you and me. Frankly, after hearing some of their stories, if I had gone through the same circumstances, I’m not sure if I would have ended up in a better place,” said Michelin about the participants who have been using Safe Harbour Society’s homeless shelter for people who are intoxicated from drugs or alcohol.
“These are people who were children once. They all had hopes and dreams like everyone else.”
Related:
Canada recognizes housing as a human right. Few provinces have followed suit
She specifically asked for neutral expressions when she photographed the participants so people who view the paintings can do so objectively, using the filter of art to better relate and empathize with the city’s homeless.
Michelin, who only started painting again in the last 15 years, used different coloured backgrounds in the portraits to symbolically express the participants’ life experiences.
She said people have always been the subject of her paintings.
“I remember sitting down with my mother and she’d show me how to draw a face. I was more drawn to people than anything else.”
During her teens in Winnipeg, she painted icon portraits of Jesus and Mary for an Orthodox church. In recent years, her children have been the subject of her paintings.
“I’m sure they’re happy I moved on,” she laughed.
About 15 years ago, she joined the Alberta Community Art Clubs Association and entered its juried competitions. Her success, and the art community that she discovered, has kept her motivated.
She said her new exhibit was fulfilling because it combined art and social conscience.
Related:
A “comprehensive provincial emergency shelter strategy is needed’: Red Deer city council
Michelin said not too long ago a friend who fell down in a public park, broke her arm and ankle, had a difficult time getting anyone to come to her aid. People kept walking right by, probably thinking she was drunk or on drugs.
Just last weekend another woman told her that when she fell and injured her back at a bus stop she was on the ground until the bus arrived and the driver got off the bus to help her.
“This is just so disturbing to me. How have we come to this as a society that people are not willing to approach anyone on the ground to ask if they’re okay?”
She said we are all human and the challenges some people face don’t make them any less worthy.
Michelin hopes that people who visit the exhibit will remember that those struggling with homelessness are no different than anyone else in society.
“They just have had much steeper obstacles in their way.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter