Making the Invisible Visible
INTRODUCTION I will never forget the day when my friend Katie said she often feels “invisible.” I was confused because I thought of Katie as one of the most visible people I know. It took me a while to unravel this paradox. I used to think that feeling “invisible” meant that no one noticed you. But actually, earlier in the fall Katie told me about how often people notice her and stop her on the street. Over and over, people offer her shoes.
sometimes scare me. Her paintings make me think. My career goal is to help Katie and other invisible individuals get some positive attention. I first began working with homeless individuals ten years ago, and I remember the volunteer coordinator encouraged me to follow the “strengths-based approach.” This powerful idea challenged me to focus on the positive. It helped me notice things.
Katie is barefoot much of the time. The attention that she gets for her bare feet does not make her feel visible. In fact, this kind of attention may even intensify her feelings of invisibility because people are focusing on her poverty and her difference.
Instead of exclusively dwelling on the fact that people do not happen to have housing at the moment, why not focus on their talents? Their imaginations. Their ability to create art, to manipulate different mediums. The concept really stuck with me. It is central to my career choice and my daily life.
One of the only times Katie doesn’t feel invisible is when she is painting. Katie has experienced chronic homelessness. She is around my age. When she was living on a porch in Boston she told me how thankful she was to have a “place to exist.” She told me, “I spent a long time fighting for my right to exist everywhere I went.” I have known Katie for a few years, and she often amazes me. She is incredibly talented and thoughtful. Her paintings sometimes inspire me. Her paintings
Since I graduated from college, I have been both creating and collaborating with art programs in homeless shelters. While running art groups in shelters, I have worked with many people who have suffered unimaginable pain. One artist had recently escaped 30 years of domestic violence when she came to her first painting group. She was slowly gaining confidence and learning to overcome her past. I had studied
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I developed simple techniques to empower the women who participated in the art groups. I hugged everyone when they entered or left the group. I told goofy stories. I listened. I made jokes. I encouraged. I shared my palette. Each day we built a stronger community of trust. Whenever a woman said that she did not know what to paint, I would tell her to paint “hope.” Through my art groups, I helped women build strength, realize their talents, and develop more self-confidence. In other words, marginalized individuals slowly felt more visible as they created more art. During the process of creating art groups, I worked with a wide range of people including recovering drug addicts, and individuals experiencing disabilities. After running an annual art show for three years, I realized that there was a need to offer a yearround marketplace for marginalized artists. There are thousands of art groups across the country in disability
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centers, homeless shelters, and hospitals where artists create amazing work. These artists need a bridge to share their work with the community. On November 29, 2013, my brother Spencer Powers and I founded ArtLifting, a social enterprise that empowers artists living with homelessness and disabilities through the celebration and sale of their work. As ArtLifting grows stronger, artists like Katie finally feel appreciated for their talents. Artists like Katie finally receive attention for their strengths instead of their differences. Artists like Katie become more visible. Homeless individuals have repeatedly told me over the last decade, “Liz, I don’t want a handout. I simply want an opportunity.” To create opportunity I created a marketplace to help homeless and disabled artists sell their work. ArtLifting comes from the words “art” and “uplifting.” There is a duality in the word.
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JEFF ROYSDON SAN FRANCISCO
Jeff Roysdon creates art at a community based art program, Hospitality House, in San Francisco that helps him with supplies, inspiration and gives him motivation to participate in a community. He struggles with anxiety and depression and describes: “I am rarely able to leave the house due to my struggles so I make the best of it by drawing. I make art for the feeling of accomplishment, the positive feedback and to help manage my anxiety. I love sharing a little of myself through my art as I’m not much of a talker.”
Jeff is enthusiastic about participating in ArtLifting as it is a chance for him to share himself and his art with the world through sharing his talents and love for vibrant design and color. He describes that he does not get the chance to show his art to people very often and as a result has had few opportunities for art shows. He hopes that his participation will result in higher self esteem, motivation to fight his depression to continue creating art, and an increased ability to purchase art supplies.
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“It means a lot. I get most of my self-identity and confidence from doing art.�
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SHANNON STENECK SAN FRANCISCO
Shannon’s major artistic inspirations come from cinema, outsider art, Antoin Artaud’s drawings, and art history. He is particularly interested in art’s historical progress and its ability to influence and educate cultures through science and aesthetics. Shannon shares, “I present a series of drawings which beguile and invite the viewer’s gaze to
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linger on, allowing veiled images and text to slowly emerge out of the arrangement of lines.” Shannon creates abstract works at Hospitality House, a shelter, drop-in center, employment program and community arts studio located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
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“My artwork is my contribution to the world. My voice.”
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LINDSAY ABROMAITIS-SMITH NEW JERSEY
Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith has been creating art in some form for her whole life. Before being diagnosed with ALS in 2012 she was working as a puppetry artist, sculptor and massage therapist. Over this time she has lost the use of her arms and hands and has had to adapt to continue to express herself creatively and now focuses primarily on painting and drawing using her feet. “My artistic expression and process is unique to me, just as my thumbprint is. Creating in the face of terminal illness is an act of radical resilience. It is life affirming. It is empowering. It says ‘Beauty is possible in the darkest of times.’” Lindsay describes herself as a woman with incredible resilience and drive towards creative expression: “Living with ALS is the most difficult
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thing I have ever done. It has given me so many opportunities to slow down, figure out what is important to me, and shift my perspective of the world. I am most proud of the fact that I am still thriving despite my body becoming differently abled. I think my best work has come out of pushing against my limitations.” Lindsay hopes to share her art and her voice with the world through her participation in ArtLifting: “I dream of helping as many people as I can to know that beauty can be found in unlikely places and that honoring your gifts no matter what happens will be a source of light for the world. To know that part of my light might shine in someone’s home and hopefully help them shine is deeply satisfying... down to my toes!”
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— Lindsay was diagnosed with ALS in 2012. 19
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CHARLES BLACKWELL SAN FRANCISCO
“I make art to be an encouragement and inspiration to myself and others. I love when I can inspire others to live and to discover wonder in themselves.” Charles is from San Francisco and currently lives in Oakland, California. He has been an artist since he was a young child and loves the process of creating art. Charles studied at Sacramento City College, where he learned from inspiring teachers and became very interested in conceptual art as well as film. Charles is legally blind. As a young man, he was involved in an accident that caused him to lose the majority of his eyesight, keeping only some
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peripheral vision. Charles continues to be a believer in the phrase, “take your challenges and make them an asset,” as he finds that the loss of his vision has opened him up to an entirely new style, freedom, and way of working as an artist that he may never have known without this experience. He has won numerous service awards for his volunteer work and advocacy for the arts and is the author of three books: R edemption Beyond Blindness, Fiery Responses to Love’s Calling, and Is, the Color of Mississippi Mud. It is his hope to be able to increase his income through the sale of his artwork, obtain stable housing, and continue to inspire as many people as he can by sharing
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“My legs are still pretty strong so I am grateful that I can use my feet to paint. I use a lot of paint to create texture and it is really fun to squish between my toes and on canvas.�
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“I feel free and empowered when I am creating art. I am transported beyond my chair while working on a piece. I make art because I need to articulate the things in life that have no words. Making and experiencing art allows me to feel the deeper richness that life has to offer.�
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— Charles Blackwell is legally blind.
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— “When I went blind, my doctor told me, ‘Take your defect and make it your asset.’”
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ANDREW WEATHERLY NEW JERSEY
Warm, insightful, intuitive and caring; Andrew Weatherly of Bergen County, New Jersey has brought all of these heartfelt qualities together, expressing and sharing the innermost thoughts of a profoundly perceptive young man. His sincerity and deeply provocative realizations are expressed through a variety of artistic venues.
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Capturing the world through the lens of his camera, Andrew explores life and unites his thoughts, his heart, his soul, and his artistic flare through the blending of paint colors, pen, and paper on a unique journey of self-expression. Andrew’s perseverance has allowed him to overcome many of the obstacles a person with Down Syndrome often faces, while his insight
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— Andrew was born with Down Syndrome.
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“I create because it allows me to be myself. I’m an optimistic person.”
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KITTY ZEN BOSTON
Kitty Zen is a self taught multimedia artist and humanitarian advodate based in Boston. As a survivor of PTSD, Kitty has used her artwork and gifts of self expression to stay mindful and outgoing in an ever expanding, fast paced and awesome world and universe. Her connection to the bigger universal and human picture is key in her life and in her art. She often expresses herself in multidimensional visual elements, dreamy
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abstract features, and many works of interpretive outer space influenced imagery. Kitty has used her art to support herself, having started selling her art while homeless as a young adult. Kitty has found herself to have grown into a professional artist, advocate, and activist, choosing to focus on issues of youth and family homelessness as well as harm reduction and prevention.
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Kitty has been homeless since she was sixteen years old. She used to sell her artwork off a blanket in Boston Common.
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“Just being able to be viewed as a person or talented individual person, to be respected and to get a good chance to be out there is something I want to be able to keep up.�
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— “I love making art, because it is the most comfortable way I know to express myself. I love being able to use my artwork to pin down fleeting moments of my imagination. I choose to paint works that evoke a sense of whimsy and optimism. Focusing my energies this way is very calming for me.”
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TIM STROUSS SAN JOSE
A native of San Jose, California, Tim began painting six years ago. Following complications from a surgery in 2008, Tim was left with partial paralysis on his left side. He only has use of one arm and walks with a heavy limp when not using his wheelchair. When discussing painting as a form of selfexpression, Tim says, “it’s cathartic, challenging and engaging. Over the years, creating and painting have served to illustrate things about myself or my life in a way that nothing else does.”
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Selling the artwork he creates has special significance for Tim. He elaborates, “When someone says in essence, ‘I want to decorate my life and personal space with something of your thoughts, emotions, life, personal story, etc., and I’ll pay you for it,’ that validates, motivates and vindicates me. Overall, selling my art makes me feel honored and appreciated. And, it allows me to make more art!”
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— “Painting is cathartic, challenging and engaging. Over the years, creating and painting have served to illustrate things about myself or my life in a way that nothing else does.�
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