Artist of the Day: Hugh Leeman

Hugh Leeman is a San Francisco based street artist. His wheat paste hand drawn portraits of the San Francisco homeless can be seen all over the city. Anyone who has ever been to San Francisco is fully aware of the enormous homeless population (largest in the country).

San Francisco houses (pun intended) the largest amount of homeless people per capita for more reasons than the obvious. Along with being the most expensive city to live in, San Francisco residents are also the most philanthropic people in the country. The Haight and Ashbury hippies of the 70's have grown up and now give hand outs as often as they can, since they closely relate to the modern homeless inhabitants. Also, as well as homegrown factors, neighboring cities and counties have been known to send their homeless citizens on one way buses to San Francisco as a means to getting rid of their own homeless problems.

Hugh Leeman has, in a sense, embraced the individual within these otherwise unnoticed members of San Franciscan society and given "hard to miss" representations of them all throughout the city. Next time you're in the bay area, keep your eyes peeled for Leeman's artwork.