Art show features homeless and low-income artists

Constance Lane

The work created at Common Art, a Boston art studio for homeless and low-income artists, can be as direct and honest as the blues, and as hallucinatory as a fairy tale. The artists working there are proud, independent, wildly imaginative, and completely dedicated to their craft. The work is often beautiful, sometimes horrifying, and always true to a unique and personal inner vision.

Looking around the room, we find images that can be fantastically sunny and bright, but also dark as death. In one piece we find a highly mysterious encounter, in another, a talking M&M. Other pieces depict a faraway island lagoon, a happy imp, or an enigmatic, elusive face. No matter what the image, we are taken away for a moment to experience something other than the ordinary, and for that moment, everyday reality steps aside. This is art is of the heart and soul, direct and unfiltered. Although it can be uncomfortable or confusing, it is always honest – and always engaging.

Thanks to the City HeArt 2012 Annual Art Show and Sale, an entire collection of such pieces will be on view at Old South Church, 645 Boylston St. in Boston on Saturday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, please contact: heidi.hj.lee@gmail.com

City HeArt 2012 Annual Art Show and Sale will be on view at Old South Church, 645 Boylston St in Boston on Saturday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.