Art’s ability to change the world has certainly been debated. But it can’t be denied that art changes us. It does that every day – making us whole, giving us a small sense of escape from the day to day.
An exhibit at the Rooted Cafe is full of that sense of creative freedom. “Echos” opens Wednesday at the Somerville Armory and highlights art made through the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
Members of the local unhoused community congregate from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Tuesday at the organization’s Davis Square office for an art group run since October by social work student and coalition intern Alexandra Macrides. The shelter that many of them live in closes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. The coalition members look forward to the Tuesday meetings where they’ve made art and built a community.
For many, the group reveals the “inner artist that was hidden,” said program participant Derek Dyer in an interview with Cambridge Day.
Likewise, member Chris Pitts said the program “takes us out of the situation that we’re in” and “relieves us of that little bit of stress.”
“It’s not just art,” Pitts said. “We’ve made good friends.”
Pitts and his mother, Gloria Gamache, are coming up in August on their one-year anniversary of being unhoused. Amid that uncertainty, the program is a lifeline of structure and support.
Art is a low-barrier activity, a way in for newcomers and for those who might not be ready to start to search for housing.
The exhibition’s ethos matches that of the coalition programming. In a low-stress approach, Macrides gave several options for what medium participants could work in and what kind of art they could make.
The result is a wide-ranging exhibition, full of different media and artistic styles.
Joey Grimes’ work is a standout. He salvaged a stunning, discarded picture frame for a painting, filling it with a mysterious and vivid composition. He has a strong command of color, layering paint to conjure creatures. His natural imagination and sense of style are clear after years of practice.
“I started drawing as a kid, because we never had a lot of money,” Grimes said. “I never got to play sports or learn an instrument. I used to steal the copy machine paper from Store 24 and draw.” (The mini mart chain had a location in Davis Square; a 7-Eleven is there now.)
In addition to that resourceful dedication to creative practice, one of the most lovely aspects of the show is seeing the reverence group members have for each others’ art.
Dyer spoke highly of Grimes’ skills: “The talent that he holds should be seen and should be recognized,” he said. And he marveled at how Adriana Paula “just takes anything and can turn it into art.”
Everything made for the show was created with so much joy and good humor and freedom; you can almost see that in the paintings. “We do a lot of laughing,” Gamache said of the group.
There’s an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday for “Echos: An Exhibition by SHC Members” in the Rooted Cafe at the Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
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