Women’s Hearth to hold art show Friday

As a homeless woman in Spokane, Mary Laposa frequently finds herself gazing at the sky. Her questions are practical: What will the weather be like today?

They’re also spiritual: What does God have in store for me today?

So when the 41-year-old used a camera for the first time during a 10-week photography class at Women’s Hearth, she gravitated toward images of the sky – sunsets, rainbows, colors playing upon the clouds.

“It helped me to feel good about myself, taking pictures,” said Laposa, who has no photos of the places she’s been and things she’s seen. “It’s all up here,” she said, tapping her head. “I never really got to take pictures my whole life.

“Just to have a camera in my hands like that was really cool.”

Laposa’s photos, and those of 11 other low-income and homeless women, will be on display during First Friday this week at the Women’s Hearth, 920 W. Second Ave. The drop-in center is a safe haven for women, offering hot showers, healthy snacks and classes in art, computers and spirituality, along with a judgment-free feeling of community. Women can work toward their General Educational Development (GED) diplomas, research housing options and learn about mental health services there.

Women’s Hearth is part of the Transitions program, which also operates Miryam’s House, EduCare and the Transitional Living Center. Transitions is sponsored by the Dominican Sisters, Sisters of the Holy Names, Sisters of Providence and Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia.

Though Women’s Hearth regularly offers writing, painting and crocheting classes, this was the first on photography. Organized by AmeriCorps volunteers Stephanie Burgess and Megan Mulcaire-Jones, 12 women stuck with the 10-week course, meeting for 90 minutes weekly. A $725 grant from Assistants paid for photo development. The cameras and photo albums for each woman were donated. Huppin’s repaired the cameras and donated batteries. Rosauers donated the film.

“The population is so fluid. They have so many pulls and crises in their lives,” said Women’s Hearth Director Mary Rathert. “It’s so important for them to see something concrete they can do. This was a big success.”

Accomplished photographer Dorothy Detlor, who retired as dean of Washington State University’s Intercollegiate College of Nursing in 2006, volunteered to teach the class.

Karen Mobley, Spokane’s arts director, said she admires people who “keep trying to do something creative when they’re struggling every day just to keep themselves clean and fed and warm. It’s a testimony to the durability of the human spirit.”

Kelly O’Connor, who is 46, said she used to take pictures regularly before becoming homeless at age 33 because of domestic violence and alcoholism. She said the photography class allowed her to commit to something and made her think.

One of O’Connor’s photographs, under the theme of “growth,” shows her walker, her crutches and her cane. Those are the walking aides she’s used as she’s healed from hip replacement surgery in January. At each step of the way, her friends at Women’s Hearth cheered her recovery.

“These ladies, they make me feel like I’m somebody,” O’Connor said. “I can express myself how I am.”