HOMELESSNESS:SOMETIMES LIAM McArdle has so many ideas in his head it "starts to hurt", he says.
"I just want to do more sculpture. My main aim is to do as much sculpture as I can. I'm always having ideas."
McArdle, from Drogheda and who has been homeless "on and off for 30 years", is staying temporarily in the Back Lane hostel run by the de Paul Trust in Dublin's city centre.
A key-worker recommended he apply for an art-foundation course at Whitehall College of Further Education two years ago, and now two of his pieces will feature in an art exhibition at the Electric Picnic festival in Co Laois.
Titled Life Is No Picnic On The Streets, the exhibition opens tomorrow and features work by nine artists currently resident in de Paul Trust hostels.
The key motivation for the exhibition, says Kerry Anthony, chief executive of the trust, is to raise awareness about homelessness, "especially among the demographic at the Picnic - young professionals who see people sleeping rough and might feel some affinity".
Given the Picnic's pride in being ecologically sound, leafletting - with the attendant littering problem - was not an option. "So we had to be more creative in getting our message across. We notice with our service-users how much they are interested in art, music and drama."
The trust approached John Reynolds, co-promoter of the festival, and he was keen on their idea for an exhibition.
All service-users were invited to contribute work and three community artists were recruited to help those interested with their projects. In the end nine residents from three of the trust's hostels will exhibit at the Picnic.
One of McArdle's works uses clay and copper-wire, depicting both hope and bad choices that inform a life of intermittent homelessness. The other is a beautiful giant firefly, its body made of clay and its wings a filagree of copper-wire woven like lace.
Another artist from Back Lane exhibiting tomorrow is Gary McLoughlin from Dublin, who has had spells of homelessness here and in London.
Like McArdle, he is studying art at the Whitehall college. It was recommended to him by people he met at Aware, the charity supporting people with depression.
His favoured medium is oil paint and he has five pieces in tomorrow's exhibition. One is a striking portrait of another resident in the hostel. Others are portraits of women and another his take on a portrait by an established artists that he saw in an exhibition this year.
He hopes to go to the National College of Art and Design when he graduates from Whitehall College. "I'm not sure what after that, but it will definitely be to do with art."
• Life Is No Picnic On The Streets opens in the Leviathan tent at 6pm tomorrow.
