Found this fascinating article in The Londonist concerning the artist Stik and his background of homelessness and how he is using his art to follow his social aims! :-)
“My name is Stik. I don’t give out my name because I’m a graffiti artist. I still paint illegally,” he says. But there’s more to this evasive answer. Stik’s past has been difficult. Although he admits he became homeless some 10 years ago, he won’t talk about how. It’s clearly an unhappy story spanning a number of years. “Art totally took me out of homelessness,” he reflects. “It kept me focused and on the right track.”
The only item Stik would take with him as he moved around town was a huge box containing hundreds of sketchpads. “Well, I’ve always drawn stickmen, and on walls. That goes right back. When I became homeless I was really out of the system. There was no thought of being in galleries at all; art was just my way of communicating.”
He started painting larger pieces around East London, scavenging near-spent tins of white emulsion, left outside redecorated homes. When painting outside, passers-by would often ask him to paint the outside of their own houses. Stik says if you can see the wall from the street he’ll still paint it for free, although it’s hard to see how long this can continue thanks to the high demand.
“I don’t have a formal education. I learned from other graffiti and street artists like Doze, Zomby, Run and Roa. Street artists learn a lot from each other. There’s a mutual understanding between street artists who risk getting their work out there.”
In winter 2009, after a period of homelessness, Stik went to a drop-in centre, who found him a place at St Mungo’s in Hackney (one of his paintings still graces the back yard). Stik saw his time in the hostel as sink or swim. He was there for just over a year, which he says was his most productive time. “A lot changed when I moved into the hostel. It was a good space. I painted a lot of work in the streets.”
Inspired by his past, Stik started linking his art to local news stories and social issues, often depicting those who slip through the cracks. He was commissioned by the NHS to produce a series of murals around Hackney to depict the effects of various drugs for an addiction education website.
In 2011, Stik moved out of the hostel into more stable accommodation in Hackney. He was then offered four solo shows: at the Subway Gallery (on Edgware Road), with the Lava Collective in Covent Garden, at KOP in Bristol and at Graffik Gallery in West London. All four sold out, just like his recent show.
Stik is now in a much better position, and he’s choosing to follow his social aims. In the summer of 2011, he was invited to Gdansk, Poland by the British Council to paint a large-scale street piece as part of the Brit Cult Festival alongside Gilbert and George at the Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art. That Christmas his posters were sold at a fundraiser for St Mungo’s.
