STUART PERLMAN, PhD

For 40 years, Stuart Perlman has been a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in West Los Angeles. Also, as a portrait painter, in his current project of 14 years, he illuminates the faces of the homeless, along with their humanity and pain. Stuart has painted over 250 individuals. He also has collected their histories, art and music. Fine Art Connoisseur magazine called this work “Great Art Worldwide”. This project has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Guardian of London, Vanity Fair Italia, the Taipei Times and the Jewish Journal. Stuart has had many exhibitions. The National Association for Advancement of Psychoanalysis nominated Stuart’s paintings for “Best Art of the Year”, and his documentary Struggle in Paradise, based on this project and the lives of these homeless people, won the “Best Movie of the Year.” Stuart was LACPA’s “2016 Distinguished Social Justice Award” winner and has been honored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for his work. Many portraits are available on Amazon in his book, Struggle in Paradise, and his upcoming book, Open Your Heart Through Art.

Keena
(Oil-On-Canvas, 4’ High x 4’ Wide) 

Keena is a proud transgender woman. Keena’s mother was a drug addicted 17 year old who sold Keena as a sex slave to support her habit. At the age of eight Keena, then a male, was sent to live with her grandmother along with her two sisters. Grandma did not want to care for a boy and soon gave Keena over to foster care. Keena felt unwanted and rejected for much of her childhood. She now lives a life cut off from anyone she knew back then because the memories are too painful.

Keena is a high school graduate and completed two years of college. She liked school and did very well. She had leads in plays, played baseball, and was the high school Prom King. She went to cosmetology school and has been doing hair since she was 14.

Keena has done drugs and gone to jail. She has been discriminated against when seeking housing and employment. Keena is happy now because she has a “really nice” boyfriend she lives with on the streets of Skid Row. But during her transition she has experienced “a lot of violence and gay bashing.”

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