{"id":4516,"date":"2012-03-04T13:08:26","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T21:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jo-online.vsb.bc.ca\/keller\/?p=4516"},"modified":"2012-03-04T13:08:26","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T21:08:26","slug":"the-homeless-among-you-what-lisa-lesniaks-compassionate-art-makes-visible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vsb.bc.ca\/dkeller\/2012\/03\/04\/the-homeless-among-you-what-lisa-lesniaks-compassionate-art-makes-visible\/","title":{"rendered":"The Homeless \u201cAmong You\u201d: What Lisa Lesniak\u2019s Compassionate Art Makes Visible"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AMONG YOU: DRAWN TO COMPASSION<\/h2>\n
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Artist Lisa Lesniak has created moving portraits of guests who grace our patio each Monday for the All Saints\u2019 Monday Meal for the homeless. \u201cIn a community where surface appearance holds sway, your face draws me to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Once, I was driving through Beverly Hills with Lisa Lesniak and she waved to a handsome, well-dressed man in his twenties or so on a street corner.\u00a0\u00a0 The smile that crossed his face was beautiful, beatific, and also revealed some missing teeth.\u00a0\u00a0 Until that moment, in his designer clothes and in the gleam in his eye recognizing Lisa, I might have thought he was a hip actor, in Beverly Hills after a shoot.\u00a0\u00a0 He was a homeless man, from the shelter, walking, with pride and beauty, \u201cAmong You.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some artists have the gift to make us see what our own assumptions make invisible.\u00a0\u00a0 And then some activist-artists, like Lisa Lesniak, take that vision and transfer it back.\u00a0 The person of the portrait is not just some \u201cmuse\u201d but a real human being whose life can also be transformed by art.\u00a0\u00a0 In this case, Lesniak performs that work, taking couture bequeathed by those who have passed away in 90210, one of the wealthiest zipcodes in America, to those who live in poverty amid wealth.\u00a0\u00a0 It is an act of\u00a0 \u201cthe tactility of contemplation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Lesniak says, \u201ccompassion resides in the in-taking from wherever you come.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So it does.\u00a0\u00a0 And in the recognition of human dignity, beauty, pride, and expression revitalized in these remarkable portraits.
\nTo read full article\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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But we as Canadians are not without our own problems… \u00a0Our province of B.C. for last 8 years has lead Canada in having the\u00a0highest\u00a0level of child poverty<\/a>, \u00a0and B.C. child poverty rate continues to climb<\/a>. \u00a0If you simply Google ‘child poverty in Canada’ you will see too many articles…\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

“Twenty years ago Canadian politicians pledged to eradicate child poverty, but today an abysmal one in ten kids in this country is growing up poor. We look at the consequences of that poverty and what needs to be done….”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is an interesting look at what canada has done, or not done over the last 20 years: \u00a0Child Poverty<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the BCIT Documentary on child poverty in BC “BC Shame”<\/a><\/p>\n

What is POVERTY?<\/p>\n