Welcome

Our Homeless

These are paintings of the homeless in Charleston, SC, in our USA. I painted them during a ten year period. I went to the homeless shelter, took my easel and paints, and stood in the yard and painted the people who were interested in being painted. I had to ask the staff for permission, and when they heard my credentials, they offered me a chaplain’s job also! So I painted them and they loved being painted. It meant a lot to them that someone would pay any attention to them. After they sat, I paid them a fair artist’s model fee.

As I painted them, I heard their stories and talked to them. I started a woman’s group called “Being the Best You Can Be.”

I had an art show in Charleston and gave the money I got from the paintings to the shelter. The project I am looking for now is not to raise money for the shelter, but to make a permanent statement in a soft-covered book that people can share. It will give us a glimpse of lives that we may not know about or think about. As our awareness grows, we can make this a better world.

This website includes a few of the 27 pictures that will be in this book. In addition, click here to see one example of some of the writing that will be in this book.

I hope you will help me make this happen.
Thanks,

Carolyn Ter Poorten
 

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