We wanted to do something that involved a lot of people and had a positive effect. It's become something bigger than that.

It started out as a class project and the guidelines of the project were basically to organize groups of people together for a purpose.

We thought an art project would benefit people the most. They would be active doing something and we could use the paintings for a fund-raiser. It's a wonderful way to get their story out.

They really loved it. There are some people who did four. We hope (the show) will be pretty profound.

This is to remind the community (homelessness) is in our town. Our goal is that business owners and service agencies buy the paintings to stay in public view.

They aren't professionals, but there's a lot of heart and soul in the works.