Neil Shigley, a visionary artist, once took the portrait of a man named Mark, 46, near a freeway entrance in San Diego. Mark told Shigley that city workers had cleared all of his belongings, including his tent.

“I’d rather be disliked than ignored,” Mark said, according to Shigley. “No one wants to be ignored. So I choose to do what I’m doing now, just living, surviving … you can call it surviving.”

In Shigley’s “Invisible People” exhibit, on display at Syracuse’s ArtRage Gallery on Hawley Avenue until Oct. 27, Shigley creates portraits that address housing insecurity and poverty. The 17 detailed portraits on display are complemented with a series of events including panel discussions on Sept. 26 and Oct. 18, and a video session on Oct. 6.

When he started the project in 2005, Shigley said he had no intended message, but the more people he met, the more the project became a cause. He wants to redefine how the public views people living on the streets and bring the public together by using art to create dialogue about social issues. He wants to allow people who do not have a traditional home to become visible to society and reclaim their identity.

Neil Shigley began creating portraits of people living on the street in 2005. The project has since become a cause to shed light on social issues such as housing insecurity and poverty. Paul Schlesinger | Staff Photographer

Shigley began drawing shortly after his fingers could pick up a pencil. His inspiration came from his father, a former military officer who liked to draw. He and his family traveled across Europe, Korea and the United States including Chicago and San Francisco, where he went to high school. Shigley said both of his parents were empathetic, a theme he seeks to portray in his work. His artwork changes how he looks at others, because he has come to realize just how much every person, every face, has in common, he said.

“I would hope that people would at least consider these people in a different way once they see the work,” Shigley said. “I would hope people would do something for somebody who doesn’t have it as good as they do. Help somebody out. It makes your life much richer.”

Because many people actively make people on the streets invisible, they feel isolated, Shigley said. By spending time with his subjects, he has come to appreciate their strengths, dignities and vulnerabilities.

He met 7-year-old Bella, whose mother grew up homeless in a gang in Los Angeles and married at 16. Bella’s mother told Shigley that her husband was violent, so she escaped him with her three children to live on the street and in shelters.

---

---

Shigley also met Linda, who was laying in a bedroll on the sidewalk when he met her. The 49-year-old said she was waiting for an appointment that would decide whether she’d be up for temporary housing. Linda said she had been homeless for 17 years.

Shigley also knows that Dorice, 67, preferred living on the streets. She wants to help other women in similar situations.

He met Luther, 49, who was stationed in San Diego as a sailor and returned to the area, living on the streets. Luther has grown sons.

“Both meetings left me feeling good,” Shigley recalled.

“He’s not an expert in homelessness, but he’s purposely engaging with people to tell their stories,” said Kimberley McCoy, the community engagement organizer at ArtRage Gallery.

Shigley greets people on the street with a smile and sometimes a laugh. He starts up a conversation and asks if he can photograph him or her with his iPhone. If the person obliges, he snaps only one or two photographs. It’s not a photo shoot, he wants them to be comfortable. His current focus is on women and children.

---

---

“That’s a weak spot for me,” Shigley said Tuesday night at the gallery in Syracuse. “Women are victimized on the street. I try to make them visible again, in some way.”

Shigley said his proudest artistic achievement is a mural honoring Martin Luther King Jr. He spends two minutes with some subjects and up to an hour with others. All some people own is clothes, a blanket and pillow. Others might have a stash of stuff or a locker somewhere.

“Having portraits on the wall is raising their awareness and spreading the conversation of homelessness,” he said. “I believe in my heart that this is bringing to light an important issue.”

The artist plans to continue expanding his project, which could include four additional portraits of people living on the streets in Syracuse. Shigley said there are no boundaries on how far the series — much of his life’s work — can go.

“Part of the larger point of these,” he said, “is it forces people to acknowledge people right in front of them.”

Published on September 19, 2018 at 10:15 am

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21