Faces of Homelessness: Painting the Unseen Among Us- A Mission Statement

Faces of Homelessness: 
Painting the Unseen Among Us- A Mission Statement
By Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas (@RabbiNoah)

Valley Beth Shalom is proud to be known as an innovative and inclusive community that offers a dynamic Judaism expressed in learning, worship, activism, and community. As part of that expression, VBS promotes artistic expressions of Jewish values.   Our new initiative will transform the very wall spaces of VBS into “learning exhibitions” that further our long and respected tradition of arts engagement.

Théophile Gautier famous wrote, "L'art pour l'art" or “art for art’s sake,” but our tradition holds a different position. According to the Midrash, the poetry of Song of Songs, arguably the “artiest” section of the entire Tanakh, gained its importance in Jewish life because “it is upon this poem that a person can stand on the principles of the Torah.” (Songs Rabba Ch.1)  Art, in the rabbinic mind, both celebrates and provokes. It reminds us of the majesty of our Torah and traditions, while teaching us that our experience of life must never end with a sigh or yawn. “That was nice” is not a sentiment that can maintain the covenant of the people.

Our new gallery will promote Jewish values by exhibiting artists and their work that seek to transform lives and raise social conscience through their work. Every exhibit will also include educational programs and a “what you can do” section to turn the experience of the art into real action.

Our first exhibition is by Dr. Stuart Perlman. Dr. Perlman is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst has practiced in West Los Angeles for over 35 years. Dr. Perlman took up painting in earnest five years ago, when his father died, reminding him that life is short and convincing him to return to his youthful aspirations of becoming an artist. He initially took classes at Santa Monica College and the YWCA, but soon tired of painting the bored-looking female models who posed for the students. Then, in 2010, on a visit to Venice Beach, he found himself drawn to its many homeless regulars, whose faces seemed to tell a thousand stories. Nervously he began asking people to pose for him — he returned often seeking to convince them, achieving his goal by spending hours talking and getting to know people as well as by handing out food and cash.  

Dr. Perlman would go on to create many more of the portraits, all 18 by 24 inches, sometimes while witnessing a drug deal, brawl or knife fight. He has painted over 100 paintings and continues to return to Venice, each time spending three to seven hours talking to and painting his subjects, then taking the works home to finish, with the help of photographs, at his kitchen easel. 

After seeing his work, I knew he would be perfect to launch our new art gallery. The results of our partnership is Faces of Homelessness: Painting the Unseen Among Us: an exhibition that combines some 25 portraits of Dr. Perlman, essays telling the stories of those whom he captures, narratives about homelessness in Los Angeles, and several texts from the Jewish tradition that speak to the issue.

In addition, there is a section of the gallery set aside with text studies that focus on the issue of homelessness and informational brochures and for campaigns intended to alleviate homelessness in Los Angeles.   The gallery will be open during our busiest time of the year when thousands will enter the doors of VBS.   We hope to raise awareness, teach Torah, and inspire action during the run of the exhibition.

Please join me tonight, August 15, 2013 to meet the artist, and learn about the issue of homelessness. 

Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino is the founder of Netiya, an L.A.-based network of Jewish organizations focused on food education for environmental and social justice. He can be reached at nfarkas@vbs.org, and @RabbiNoah on Twitter.