 The work of Gerardo Paz will be displayed in the Jones House Community Center until Friday. Photo by Jordan Paris
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by MEGAN NORTHCOTE
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
Growing up in Mexico, Gerardo Paz always had a fascination for color and geometric form.
While working with architectural design in high school in 1985, Paz met Professor Arturo Kanno from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, the National Institute of Beautiful Art.
Kanno changed Paz’s life.
Paz desperately wanted to attend the institution for both art and architecture, but had no money to pay for tuition.
Recognizing Paz’s earnest enthusiasm for the arts, Kanno accepted Paz free of charge.
But Paz’s good fortune didn’t last long.
In 1994, Mexico’s economy took a turn for the worst, forcing Paz to work in a factory to support his family.
A few years later, Paz found himself homeless.
In 2005,
hoping to find employment and further his passion for art, Paz moved to
America, where he was immediately discovered by the Hospitality House
of Boone, a non-profit crisis intervention organization that assists
homeless people.
The
Hospitality House offered Paz a chance to display his artwork as part
of a feature exhibit at the Jones House Community Center.
National
Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week is Nov. 15-21, and the works of two
other artists will be on display at the Open Door Gallery of the Jones
House Community Center until Friday.
 Gerardo Paz poses with one of his paintings, "People In Limbo," at the Jones House Community Center. Photo by Jordan Paris
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The artists
of each exhibit will be available to answer questions about their work
at a reception following this month’s Downtown Boone Art Crawl from 6
p.m. to 9 p.m.
Jones House
Community Center executive director Cherry H. Johnson said a community
center board member proposed the Open Door Gallery a few years ago,
with the mission that it should serve student and emerging artists.
“[The
Hospitality House sponsored exhibit] really fits the mission of the
Open Door Gallery because, for all three of the artists, this is their
first time they’ve exhibited their work,” Johnson said.
Jill K.
Landers, Hospitality House director of development said some current or
former residents are artists and showing their talents is one way to
humanize the issue of homelessness.
“I hope that
it gives [the artists] a sense of being a part of the community,”
Landers said. “I hope that it boosts their ambition in their artwork.
More important than that, I’m hoping that folks will start to realize,
even more, that homelessness is not something that happens to ‘those
people.’ It can happen to anyone.”
It can even
happen to someone like Paz, whose work features geometric forms and
color, including a piece that depicts the beauty of a woman through the
abstract use of oil pastels on canvas.
His favorite
piece, “Jesus with an Addict,” uses vibrant colors to convey the idea
that everyone needs someone to turn to for guidance at some point in
their life.
“I paint, in
my works, some things I want to express,” Paz said. “My mom is my
inspiration. My mom taught me how to use the colors in my drawings.
She’s my dream that I can do it.”
Paz currently attends Caldwell Community College and hopes to earn his GED.
In addition, he works at Café Portofino, serving international cuisine.
In his spare
time, Paz works on his artwork at Appalachian State University’s Belk
Library & Information Commons and dreams of selling his artwork in
the area, eventually becoming an architect or civil engineer.
Paz makes new creations by using items from nature and whatever he can find at construction sites or town dumps.
One of his
most recent creations consists of a half empty can of spray paint he
found alongside the road, which he used to paint moons onto a piece of
cardboard.
“Being on a
budget, being homeless, Paz doesn’t have a lot of money to buy
supplies,” Johnson said. “But he works with what he’s got.”
Photos by Jordan Paris | The Appalachian
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