Facing Home

From averted eyes to face-to-face conversations, artist Maggie Strahle sits and illustrates a local homeless community over the course of two months; with an aim to learn causes of homelessness and confront personal discomfort. The most visible homeless community, people on the streets with signs asking for help or “chronically homeless”, make up the smallest of the homeless population yet build stereotypes for homelessness the most. Homelessness can hit anyone, but this project specifically is meant to humanize the chronically homeless.

From a sheltered perspective, Maggie journals her encounters with chronically homeless that face schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, substance abuse, alcoholism, sex addiction, serious family disruption, domestic violence, unaffordable housing, poverty, and just bad luck. She finds people abounding with generosity, humor, brutal honesty, and kindness. She particularly wanted to draw from life, rather than photograph and draw later, so she’d truly see the heart and personality of the people.