Local Brings Together Homeless Youth, Artists; Art on Display at Venice Art Crawl

Unique portrait art by homeless youth and their counterpart artists will be on display at The Cadillac Hotel during the Venice Art Crawl Thursday from 6-10 p.m.

The inaugural "Mirror, Mirror" project paired a homeless youth with an artist for a six-week partnership in which the youths and artists could talk about local issues as they created portraits of each other, said project founder Rachel Bujalski, a 25-year-old Venice resident.

About 20 homeless youths and 23 artists participated: some of the youths were able to complete their artwork, some were not. Both will be on display, said Bujalski, who expects "about a handful" of the youth artists and some of their friends to attend along with the artists who donated their time for the project.

About half of the youth participants are "travelers," said Bujalski, and the others hang in Venice. 

A transplant from suburban Chicago, Bujalski moved to Venice to be production manager for a documentarian and was surprised by what she saw in Venice.

"I grew up in a very regular family and hadn't been around this population (homeless individuals) ," she told Patch. "It was very different to see a whole 'nother world. I'm curious about everything and I love people.

"Art is such an amazing thing where you can really close the gaps and relate to each other on a human level," she said of the "Mirror, Mirror" project.

Now a freelance photographer/filmmaker and a part-time house manager after about 18 months working the job she moved to Venice for, Bujalski's curiosity and love of people prompted her to devote time to photographing and filming homeless individuals to tell their stories.

Part of her time is spent photographing and filming homeless individuals as she explores their use of technology that includes smartphones and tablets.

Interestingly, many homeless people have devices that they can use to "communicate with the real world" and trade for money. She calls ownership of such a device a homeless individual's "most important thing."

"It's a disposable item but also a really strong device that they can relate to the world and others on. It holds the most important things to them."

What are those items? "Music and photos," she said.

Launching the "Mirror, Mirror" project took some time and effort. Bujalski volunteers her time to spearhead the effort and the artists donate their time as well.

She initially sent "tons and tons of emails" to artists to locate the 23 inaugural participants. Now, she receives inquiries all the time.

Of this first project she said, "It went really, really well. A lot of it is just really showing people what we can do if we really commit to something."

Ever the go-getter, Bujalski hopes to take the project nationwide and will continue her work in Venice. "I would love to bring the homeless and non-homeless together in other communities," she said.

Bujalski collaborated on "Mirror, Mirror" with Safe Place for Youth, which provides services via volunteers for youths 25 and under who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless.

Her photographs documenting homeless youth can be seen on Tumblr at www.mirrormirrorartproject.tumblr.com and a video of hers can be seen at http://youtu.be/wDbpdPeAq38.