Shelter as art studio: Homeless get an outlet

Wedge Antilles, 48, says you can tell when he's angry by the strokes in his paintings.

The St. Francis House art room is where Antilles has spent most of his days for the past year. Leaving his shelter on Massachusetts Avenue in the morning, he sits in the small but vibrantly colorful room and paints with watercolors and pastels; he layers fabrics like felt and wallpaper on greeting cards adorned with beads. But when he's feeling angry or frustrated, he says, the colors splash around the canvas in thick, blunt strokes, the paintbrush acting as an outlet for his anguish.

''I don't often think about what I'm going to do; I just let it flow out of my hands," Antilles said.

Antilles is one of the featured artists in the St. Francis House's Thursday art gallery showing, which will display more than 50 paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works for one night in the shelter's main atrium. All of the art being shown was created by guests of the shelter in the Expressive Arts Program, which offers disadvantaged and homeless citizens a way to express themselves visually through art, said Leah Bloom, a development communications associate for St. Francis.

''When people think of the homeless, they don't think of them as artists," Bloom said. ''We see homelessness as an experience, not an identity . . . but being an artist, that's an identity."

More than 700 people a day make their way through the St. Francis House, the largest day shelter in New England. Located at 39 Boylston St., it opens its doors from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to accommodate those who are forced to leave their overnight shelters. In addition to providing essential needs such as hot meals, new clothing, and mental and health counseling, the shelter also offers recreational programs such as the Expressive Arts Program, along with programs geared toward teaching the guests life skills necessary to attain a living space as well as a permanent job.

The one-night-only exhibit is a private showing for the shelter's top donors, who account for a little over half of St. Francis' annual $5 million budget. Many of the artists have had their work displayed at venues such as City Hall Plaza, the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Sidewalk Sam art showings -- and a few have managed to sell pieces of their work.

Antilles, a 1980 graduate from the University of Illinois with a fondness for books on forensic science, said the St. Francis House -- and especially its art room -- have helped him through one of the tougher times in his life, and he will be grateful to the staff there long after he has followed through with plans to move back to his native New Hampshire.

''It's been a mental lifesaver," he said.

For more information on the exhibit or St. Francis House, contact Leah Bloom at 617-457-1002 or lbloom@stfrancishouse.org.