Today, I want to share with you a project called Faces of Santa Ana (FOSA) by artist and car designer Brian Peterson. Showing sensitive, emotive portraits of the less fortunate, the project helps to humanize the many homeless people Peterson has encountered in his home of Santa Ana, California. The young artist was drawn to these people in part because he and his mother really struggled when he was growing up, and he realized that they could easily have been in the same difficult position.

“Something inside me was telling me to reach out to them.”

Peterson interacts with his subjects on a deep, personal level before painting them. He gets to know them, talks to them about their story and what’s important to them, and even has them sign the finished artwork. He then puts the money he raises from the sale of the art into a “love account,” which he uses to help get those homeless people off the streets. Recently, Peterson transformed the project into a charitable organization. You can see more about the project in the short documentary below.

Peterson shows remarkable patience and understanding with these people. It does my heart good to see him being so kind to this oft-forgotten population. I’m really grateful that there are still people like this in the world.

Please follow and support FOSA on the project’s website, and on Instagram and Facebook.

All images property of Brian Peterson.