The Artlifting Collection

Area Environments is delighted to collaborate with ArtLifting. Our collection features nine pieces created by ArtLifting's partner artists: Juan Bonilla, Allen Chamberland, Marc, Tim Strouss, Billy Megargel, Clifton Hayes, Jude Chase, Charlie French, and Aneliya Kostova.

ArtLifting was founded in Boston in 2013 by siblings Liz and Spencer Powers. After leading art workshops at homeless shelters, Liz realized that exposure to a national audience had the possibility to transform the lives of these artists, who were homeless or living with disabilities. ArtLifting creates opportunity, empowerment, and validation – and the chance for artists to secure income through their talents. ArtLifting partners with artists from all across the U.S., whose works have been purchased by individuals and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Billy Megargel

William “Billy” Megargel lives with autism and uses artistic expression, rather than words, to communicate. His expressive, modern paintings command attention with their physical and emotional power. Anyone who knows Megargel and witnesses his passion for colors and music is moved by his expression of beauty despite intractable obstacles.

Episodic pain is a part of his life, but he refuses to be defined by it. Megargel relishes all of life’s sensations. It is his gift to humanity. His works are on display in both corporate and private settings. He has permanent installations at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Lurie Center for Autism in Lexington, MA..

Clifton Hayes

Born in Washington, D.C., Clifton Hayes began making art in elementary school. He now lives in Austin, Texas, where he creates art at Art From the Streets, a free and open studio that serves the local homeless and formerly homeless community, and through Mobile Loaves and Fishes, an organization that promotes dignity for local homeless individuals.

Over the past five years, Hayes has experienced the loss of his employment, housing, and some family and friends. Art—and his artist community—has helped him cope. Each artwork sale empowers Hayes, as it serves as a signal that his creations are valued and cherished by others.

“Creating art makes me feel good, when I can take something that is empty and make something that is new and expressive.”

Jude Chase

Jude Chase has been creating various types of art since the 1970’s. She has used oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints in addition to creating jewelry with glass fusing.

In 2010, Chase suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma. Before the injury, she was a Lead Clerk in the IT Department at Contra Costa Elections Dept in CA. She says, “When I woke from the coma, I didn’t know how to turn on a computer. I did, however, remember how to paint and draw.” In the years since her injury, she has spent time taking painting classes, moving around the country, and learning how to use her brain again after her coma. She currently lives in Bethlehem, PA, and has some of her work on display at the Epic Church Art Gallery. Chase has discovered that she likes teaching art and currently teaches acrylic painting once a month to a group of five women.

Charlie French

“Yes, I have Down Syndrome but first I want you to see me: Charlie French. Then I want you to see my ART!”

Abstract artist Charlie French works in his art studio almost daily and his commitment to his craft is evident when viewing his beautiful, calming paintings. Born in NY, French has lived both in the US and abroad, and is currently residing in Dallas, TX. While living and studying in London, a teacher noticed Charlie’s innate understanding of color theory and composition, and hence encouraged French and his parents to support and nurture his artistic passion. Painting is fundamentally and powerfully a positive and therapeutic experience. French’s abstract paintings mirror the joy of his imagination and allows him to share with the world a piece of his happiness, all of which provides him with a meaningful, purposeful life.

Aneliya Kostova

New York City, New York

Aneliya Kostova was born in a small town in Bulgaria. She moved to New York City as a young adult and currently lives in the Bronx where she works as a Community Liaison in the North Central Bronx Hospital. Kostova has three children and is currently finishing a PhD in health care administration, which she describes as her most significant life accomplishment.

Coming to the US with just a bag of clothes, she says, “I had to leave it all: my successful company, my family and friends, my education which didn’t matter here. I came to chase my dreams, to look for God and discover myself.” Kostova was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression soon after she moved, which made it difficult for her to leave her home for years. She is currently receiving treatment and uses art as a way to cope with her struggles.

Juan Bonilla

Juan Bonilla uses art as therapy to help him communicate. He shares, “When someone looks at a painting of mine, I hope for them to see life unfolding, movement, energy, color, shapes, and form. My art speaks to people in a way I could never compose in speech.”

Juan is looking forward to selling his artwork through ArtLifting so that people who purchase it can incorporate it into their own life stories. Reflecting on his past, Juan shares, “I like including mistakes because it is a reminder that life can’t always be perfect. It teaches you to look beyond the top layer and discover true merit underneath the layers and mistakes."

Juan creates his artworks at Hospitality House, a shelter, drop-in center, employment program, and community arts studio located in San Francisco's Tenderloin District.

Marc

“Art gives me the direction that I've lost; a direction that always starts with a color, grows into a terrain of texture, and sometimes isn't found until the last stroke.”

After twenty years of intense structure in the corporate business world, Marc experienced the abrupt onset of MS. Suddenly, the dynamic thinking and fast paced problem solving that had consumed his day to day challenges at work began to slip away. With the need to find a structural replacement of the challenges he sought from his day to day work, Marc's doctor recommended to find new challenges in a creative outlet. Art became that creative outlet. What many would think the diagnosis of a debilitating disease would seem crushing, Marc turned a new passion into an unrealized opportunity and took to the canvas.

It wasn't long until Marc learned to listen to his need to create and his love of vibrancy, he began to use texture as a platform for color and his motivation to rise out of bed in the morning. As Marc creates, he can easily change his perspective, adding and extracting color to create a layered terrain like human character. The textures connect the colors like Marc hopes his perspective will help connect others. Marc paints with the belief that connecting with each other through sharing perspective is vital in today's age. With so many questions about the future and as his speech progressively labored, Marc relies more so on the growing layers, texture and color of his paintings to express his personal process.

By engaging actively his artistic process, Marc is learning to test new boundaries everyday and fulfill past challenges by creating art. He often works on multiple pieces at one time, giving time and attention where he feels it is needed. Often his paintings start with only a color, then evolves to adding texture, continually building direction, layers, and dimensionality until Marc knows it is time for the one last stroke. Some of his paintings have taken years to complete as they are always created with strong attention to detail and care for the final expression they will produce.

Tim Strouss

A native of San Jose, California, Tim began painting six years ago. Following complications from a surgery in 2008, Tim was left with partial paralysis on his left side. He has use of one arm and walks with a heavy limp when not using his wheelchair. When discussing painting as a form of self-expression, Tim says, "it's cathartic, challenging and engaging. Over the years, creating and painting have served to illustrate things about myself or my life in a way that nothing else does."

Selling the artwork he creates has special significance for Tim. He elaborates, "When someone says in essence, ‘I want to decorate my life and personal space with something of your thoughts, emotions, life, personal story, etc., and I’ll pay you for it, that validates, motivates and vindicates me. Overall, selling my art makes me feel honored and appreciated. And, it allows me to make more art!"

Allen Chamberland

"It makes me feel good when people enjoy what I do."

Despite physical disabilities that limit his financial opportunities, Allen wholly devotes himself to making intricate and beautiful papercut works. He says that his motivation to create work is to “keep busy and make people happy.”

Each of Allen’s pieces is made with a single sheet of black paper. He chooses to create his work out of paper because it is inexpensive. He explains, "You don’t mind if you mess it up. If you do, then you just crumple it up and get a new piece of paper." Allen’s artwork takes incredible patience and vision. He loves selling through ArtLifting because it allows him to share his vision.