Ronnie Goodman - Soul Journey

Come to the Art, Music and Recreation Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library to see the vibrant and powerful artwork of Ronnie Goodman.  The exhibit "Ronnie Goodman - Soul Journey" will be on display through October 22nd, 2015.

"I am a 54-year-old self-taught homeless artist and distance runner living in San Francisco.  I am inspired by the beauty of this city and its diversity, balanced with the struggles of human despair. With my brush, I try to capture these raw emotions in painted images"

Ronnie Goodman is an artist, a long-distance marathon runner and an advocate for the homeless.  With the exhibit “Soul Journey” Ronnie Goodman shares his prints and his paintings which express his feelings about his life as a homeless resident of San Francisco and as an artist.  Ronnie Goodman has worked closely with the Hospitality House and the Coalition on Homelessness Street Sheet Newspaper to raise awareness of the homeless issues facing San Francisco and the Country.  Ronnie's art is timely and poetic and illustrates his personal struggle while also addressing the political climate of today.  SFGATE named Ronnie one of “28 people who made the Bay Area interesting in 2014” and he illustrated the cover for the book HouseKeys Not Handcuffs: Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in San Francisco and Beyond by Paul Boden.

Breaking the Chains

 We met Ronnie at the Art, Music and Recreation Center's reference desk a few years ago when he would ask us to help him find books about art and artists that inspired his own work.  A year ago we asked Ronnie if he would be interested in displaying his work at the library.  Being a large urban library located in the Civic Center of San Francisco, we serve a lot of patrons who are in a state of homelessness and we believe strongly in the library's mission statement, which is "The San Francisco Public Library system is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community".  We are proud to share with all of our library patrons the art created by San Francisco resident, Ronnie Goodman.  Below are a few more examples of the work on display. 

Black Lives Matter

Homeless State Prison

Man at Work

The Old Metal Door

 

 

The Three Apostles of Jazz

More information about Ronnie Goodman can be found at www.ronniegoodman.com