Photo Essay: Unhoused Artists Thrive at Cortez’s Turquoise Raven Gallery

Mary Fuller was keeping busy in her Cortez art gallery last spring when she heard her door open and turned to see a man walk in holding a handful of drawings. He glanced shyly at the paintings on the walls before introducing himself as Jason Lujan. He was living at the Bridge Shelter in Cortez, Colorado, he explained, and he sketched throughout the day to keep his mind occupied. “Is there any way you could sell this?” Lujan asked, offering her a collection of striking ballpoint pen and colored pencil drawings on recycled paper.

Fuller, who had opened Turquoise Raven Art Gallery only nine months before, recognized the talent in front of her—and also a second chance at an opportunity she’d regretted missing years before: In 2019, Fuller, a lifelong educator, was helping adults prepare for their GED tests, and as she worked with a young woman experiencing homelessness, Fuller was struck by the quality of the sketches in the students notebook. Fuller wanted to help the woman find a home for her art, but she never saw the woman again. She promised herself that when she was finally able to open an art gallery in Cortez, she would find a way to assist artists experiencing homelessness by helping them not only create art, but also sell it and produce income.

When he walked through the door at Turquoise Raven Gallery that day, Jason Lujan gave Fuller a chance to make good on that promise. “Jason coming in spurred me to say: ‘Okay, it’s time,’” Fuller recalls.

Fuller began calling shelters and soup kitchens in Cortez to see if they knew of any artists who were experiencing homelessness and might need support. She reached out to the Bridge, as well as Hope’s Kitchen at the First United Methodist Church, and Grace’s Kitchen at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. The kitchens welcomed her during mealtimes and the shelters let her in at night, where she introduced herself to people who were interested in producing art—and as folks came forward, it became apparent that they lacked something important: supplies. When she met the LOR Foundation’s Cortez community officer Nicci Crowley at an event in June 2022, Fuller realized the foundation might be able to help.

Back at Turquoise Raven, with a small grant from LOR, Fuller started making kits for the artists that included watercolor supplies, gouache, pen, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, colored pencils, and mixed media paper, which she distributed to the shelters. Within weeks, word had spread among the shelters, and she had artists knocking at her door requesting more. Artists began bringing finished work into the gallery, where Fuller would list it for sale—directing all money back to them.

Fuller was ultimately able to get more supplies to the artists she was working with, recruit a handful of new artists, and create a dedicated space at her gallery for their work. She called it No Fixed Abode. LOR’s support also helped Fuller put on the No Fixed Abode Art Show in November 2022, which featured the work of 12 artists experiencing homelessness.

The show generated more than $2,000 in sales for the artists, providing them with enough income to purchase food and other essentials. Building on that success, Fuller was able to recruit more artists and over the past year, has featured more than 25 artists experiencing homelessness at the Turquoise Raven Gallery. While the revenue from the sale of their art isn’t typically enough for rent (the average rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in Cortez is $950), it’s a piece of the puzzle that’s helped some artists find more stable living conditions.

Similar programs have been piloted in urban areas across the country, among them Redline Gallery in Denver and Art From The Streets in Austin. What Fuller has created, though, is among the first of its kind in a rural area—and it’s something she hoped would not only help the artists earn income but also be dignifying. “Some of these artists are hidden,” she says. “They’re not known because they don’t have basic shelter, and that makes everything harder.”

With Fuller’s help, unhoused artists in Cortez are no longer hidden—rather, they’re sharing their talents with the community. No Fixed Abode artists’ work now hangs on walls across Cortez, including at the LOR office of Nicci Crowley. “The No Fixed Abode project has created deeper compassion for our unhoused artists,” Crowley says. “I knew when I saw the show, I would want to purchase a piece for myself, and I’m proud to have it hanging in my office.”

This spring, we visited with three No Fixed Abode artists to learn more about how art became part of their lives, how the No Fixed Abode project is helping them, and what they hope for the future. Here, you can meet them, too.

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Photography by Matthew Tangeman

Hope Johnson