Between the Lines exhibit by Open Canvas helps homeless through art

A NEW exhibition in Melbourne is putting the homeless in the frame for all the right reasons.

Danny Chilcott with his painting for the between the lines art show

A NEW exhibition is putting the homeless in the frame for all the right reasons.

Art inspired by hardship and disadvantage is proving to be a force for change for those who are experiencing homelessness, dealing with substance abuse and addiction and living with mental health issues or a disability.

Between the Lines by Open Canvas features 19 artists’ work from sketches to sculptures.

Open Canvas founder Dan Rath said the social enterprise was created to empower disadvantaged artists by getting recognition for their talent and creating a sense of achievement by exhibiting and selling their art.

Artists receive at least 70 per cent of profits from their sold artwork providing them with a source of income.

“It is quality artwork and we hope people can come and learn the stories behind the art because they are amazing stories of courage,” Mr Rath said.

“There has been a lot of debate at the moment about homelessness but we are providing a positive platform for people to create their own futures.”

Between the Lines at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, will run until this Saturday.

DETAILS: opencanvas.com.au

Danny Chilcott, with one of his paintings.

DANNY CHILCOTT

As a young boy Danny Chilcott would jump out of his bedroom window up to five times a week to escape an alcoholic family member.

Mr Chilcott said his traumatic childhood made him restless and uninterested in school, resulting in him not knowing how to read or write until he was 25.

The former heroin addict even finds it hard to believe that today he makes a living selling his paintings for $150 a pop.

Mr Chilcott, 50, said when he paints he goes into a “trance”, helping him to forget the painful memories of abuse and later staying in share houses around Victoria for two decades.

At one stage he was kidnapped, tortured and bashed in the head with a hammer 12 times.

Mr Chilcott, who has bipolar, said it was a marriage breakdown that led to depression and no means to support himself.

“When homeless people paint they don’t think about their next feed, being cold or their next drug hit,” he said. “Art is an escape from all that.”

Jacqui says her art gives her a great sense of pride.

JACQUI

Jacqui’s home studio is an orange Kingswood she has lived in for the past 11 years.

She moved into her car after years spent running from an abusive partner and wanting to be close to her sons.

It takes Jacqui a week to complete each of her “tranquil” black and white drawings of landscapes.

She used to sell these drawings by the side of the road for $10, “just enough” to keep up the maintenance on her car.

But she lives in fear of those who follow her from place to place.

“It’s getting too dangerous living in my car. I have been attacked and raped,” she said.

At 15 Jacqui left home and her adopted parents to join a travelling show selling fairy floss and corn dogs.

But she left after seven months, hitchhiking her way to Perth.

Jacqui said it was the furthest place away from a violent family member.

Married by 21 and with three children, she was for a time placed under police protection from an ex-partner.

Jacqui said after the floor of her rental property gave way she had nowhere else except her car to live.

She said seeing her art hanging in a gallery gave her a great sense of pride.

“It is an amazing feeling to know that I have finally achieved something,” she said.

Damien Chandler with his work for the Between the Lines exhibition.

DAMIEN CHANDLER

Damien Chandler was kicked out of home as a teenager for being gay.

Mr Chandler said it while his father was looking through his drawers for drugs that he discovered the letters revealing his son was gay.

It was enough to see Mr Chandler locked out of the house.

The Queensland AIDS Council found him accommodation, despite not having the disease, where he stayed for six months.

Mr Chandler said he would regularly travel back and forth between Sydney and Brisbane over the next five years.

But he eventually ran out of places to go and would sleep rough, living mostly in parks and squats.

He would shoplift and break into businesses to support his drug habit.

He was arrested in drag for stealing for the first time in his mid-20s. This would be the first of 21 stints in jail.

In late 2014, he found permanent accommodation with HomeGround Services and shortly after moving in discovered an art room in the building.

Art became a harm minimisation strategy, he said.

His unique pieces include mannequins covered in resin, glitter and paint and a depiction of a gay pride flag bordered by empty syringes.

He believes art has played a big part in his life because there are no mistakes in art.

Chera Lee Conrad’s interest in art began at a young age.

CHERA LEE CONRAD

Art has been the one constant in Chera Lee Conrad’s nomadic life.

Her interest in art began in childhood when she would sculpt playdough that her mum would make.

Today Ms Conrad works with materials that she finds to create pieces ranging from wearable fabric flowers to carved wooden objects.

Her linocut print of the Hawaiian god of sharks in particular has proven popular with multiple orders for the print.

Ms Conrad was born in Brisbane but at age 10 moved to America for 11 years where she lived in Montana, Oregon and Arizona.

In her 30s and back in Australia she lived in a van on and off for about five years before finding transitional accommodation through the Salvation Army.

Ms Conrad said despite significant hardship she continued to develop ideas for her art by researching at libraries.