'Finding their way back': 'Illumination' comes to Harwood Art Center for its 27th iteration

“Illumination” shines a light on the homeless.

Open at the Harwood Art Center, this 27th iteration of the exhibition joins the Harwood and Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless in works made by the artists of ArtStreet.

ArtStreet gives community artists a common forum to share their experiences by coming together to make art.

This year’s show features 150 works of art, double the amount from last year’s show, and will hang through Feb. 24.

“Ninety percent of our artists are unhoused or underhoused,” said Elise Gill, ArtStreet program coordinator.

“People are finding their way back” from the pandemic,” Gill said. Fifty percent are new to the program, she added.

Clinton Keyonnie painted acrylic on board. He paints from life experience, as well as from photographs.

'Finding their way back': 'Illumination' comes to Harwood Art Center for its 27th iteration

“He gets as close to realism as he can and a lot of it is animal forms,” Gill said.

Lynn Friel’s “Happy” dog acrylic on canvas portrait is typical of her work.

“She is also very much an animal lover,” Gill said. “She does a lot of pet portraits. She likes to do expressive dogs.”

Sepi Ililonga’s “Bunny Messenger Bike” reveals comic book and cartoon influences.

“She has simply flourished,” Gill said. “She actually has a solo show in our conference room. Mostly it’s (about) her journey into her professional artist process.

“She will start with spray paint and use oils or markers,” Gill added.

A workshop photo of a cyanotype in process is scattered with stencils, tools and other objects.

“You take paper or fabric and coat it with light sensitive chemicals,” Gill explained. “You leave it out in the sun to develop like a photograph. You’re left with a negative of whatever process you took on.”

Gill’s piece “Path” grew out of frustration and anger over her first process piece.

“It’s when you don’t have a finished product in mind,” she said. “There’s no preplanning.

“There’s a whole painting underneath it,” Gill continued. “I threw an egg at it at one point, I was so frustrated. For me, that was all about the journey of trying a new process. It’s going to be hard sometimes, but there will be a reward.”