Gold Leaf on Trash: How an Artist Returns Humanity to the Unhoused
- Laila Freeman
- 5 hours ago
- 9 min read
Jason Leith uses his gift of painting portraits to share the forgotten stories of homeless people in Southern California.
Showcasing the holiness in the overlooked, Jason Leith, 35, connects with Southern California’s homeless population by painting their portraits.
His love for people, his Christian faith and his inspiration from socially engaged art in the 1960s conceived his mission, Sacred Streets. Leith has painted people on Skid Row, the streets of Oceanside, and now those at The HUB Resource Center (HRC) in Orange.
He takes his time sketching each person to learn more about their story, which is then incorporated into artwork made from recycled materials.
“You don’t find many artists walking the streets of Skid Row for inspiration,” said Joseph Gorra in Christianity Today. “But Jason Leith has done just this, rendering its beauty in ways that marry artistic excellence with social responsibility.”
Leith moved to Orange County from Vancouver, Canada at 10 years old, a time where he preferred to hide in the background from a lack of confidence, but at the same time wanted to be seen and known.
“Everything that I was trying to seek growing up is something that I now hope to speak out for others and say, ‘You have value, you have a voice, you're important,’ ” Leith said.
Sid’s Story: ‘We all bleed red’
One of the recent portraits Leith has done is for Sid, a man he met at the HRC.
Sid’s given name is Said (Sah-eed) which means “happy” in Arabic, and according to Leith, embodies Sid’s generosity and positivity. During every visit, Sid offers Leith food wanting to make sure he’s been fed, and always shares hopeful words.
However, Sid bore his broken heart to Leith about the war between Israel and Gaza, being a Palestinian, himself, with roots in Israel as his parents were born in Jerusalem.
His portrait is a triptych made from a cardboard box that once held 200 Styrofoam food containers.
“In the center, I have the empty Styrofoam box with these beams of light coming out of him towards the outer parts of the portrait,” Leith said. “And that just represented his heart for others – his heart of compassion to see others be cared for.”
Both panels depict scenes from the war, the ‘200 pcs’ printed on Leith’s canvas symbolizing both sides.
One panel has the image of Palestinian children holding out empty pots.
“On the left is children just hysterically hoping that they get a ration of food that day from whoever's serving it,” Leith said. “These looks of agony on their faces, hoping to get a bite to eat that day. And I did the math and it was over 200 kids per week that were dying for the last two years.”
The right panel’s image was of the burnt-out cars from Hamas’ first attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The ‘200’ this time representing over 200 people Hamas kidnapped and held hostage.
At the bottom of the triptych, written in red letters, is Sid’s quote, “We all bleed red,” in Arabic, English and Hebrew.
Leith’s creative decisions were inspired by Sid’s affinity for Martin Luther King Jr.’s messages of racial equality as well as Sid’s desire for peace, wanting a two-state solution for Israel and Gaza.
“What I was trying to share was equality and compassion for all people and to just open people’s hearts in a new medium to what's happening around the world through Sid's eyes and through Sid's story,” Leith said.
Sacred Streets’ Origins
At 18 years old, Leith was grappling with what many other new adults wrestle with – “What am I supposed to do with my life?”
He continued to present his question to God. He came to a crossroads: the path of helping people – either in social sectors or in spiritual outreach – and the path of being an artist.
“After a long time of wrestling through this, I felt a voice that came both within me and outside of me that said, ‘you can do both,’ ” Leith said.
At that moment, he immediately knew his artistry would be the perfect tool to connect with people, but it took him five years to work up the courage to pursue the vision.
Finally, at 21 years old, after breakfast with a friend, he decided to walk around an empty parking lot in La Mirada to pray and bask in the day’s quiet.
A rustling sound under some trees next to a cinder block wall broke the silence, and gave Leith the breakthrough he needed.
“I immediately knew there was a person that was just living there, camping out there,” Leith said. “And my stomach dropped and my heart leapt because I knew that this was the moment where I was supposed to try this idea. But I was so scared to do it.”
He returned to his car to think it over, searching for excuses. It just so happened that he had some journal paper and a mechanical pencil in his car, so he first sketched the empty lot.
When he decided to introduce himself to the homeless man named Steve, he said, “Hey, I really like where you've chosen to settle down. It's really peaceful and beautiful here. I drew the landscape. Would you mind if I drew your portrait in the middle of the landscape?”
“I made a subpar sketch, but that actually proved that this was something that was really good because Steve told me a week later, he said, ‘Jason, when I am with you, I feel human again,’ ” Leith said.
The drawing process forced Leith to slow down, which presented the opportunity to get to know Steve.
“I have to draw every single line, pay careful attention,” Leith said. “Spend an hour with this person to get a good drawing. And it becomes like a superpower that I put on when I take up drawing that I'm able to slow down and be present with somebody.”
His first sketch also made him realize that what unhoused individuals needed more of was genuine human connection.
“I think that was my hunch of what folks might be missing, who are living in the shadows,” Leith said. “Somebody to see them and to offer beauty and to speak to someone’s soul. Not just to say, ‘Let me help meet your practical needs.’ I saw that there were a lot of practical needs being met and there was an abundance of resources out there for people. And they might not be taking them up. And my theory is that if somebody feels like their life is worth saving, that they'll be able to save it, they'll fight for it.”
Transforming Trash into Righteous Treasure
In the “ditch” where Steve lived, Leith utilized a rotting office chair base with five old wheels connected to a golden metal bottom.
“I just took that and I was just turning it, turning it, turning it like a gem, trying to figure out, ‘how can I put his portrait onto this?’” Leith said.
At this time, Leith was attending Biola University, taking “assemblage” classes that helped him create art using discarded items.
“One of my strengths is to be restorative,” Leith said. “That I love fixing things and restoring things and finding the beauty in things that are overlooked. So, what I'm trying to do with the portraits is find the beauty and the goodness in the people that are overlooked. And the same exact thing can happen with the objects is that I'm finding the beauty in the overlooked stuff. And so, it's the same message and the same approach happening with both these things. And the medium in that way is the message.”
The chair’s golden legs were used to represent light rays beaming from Steve’s head in his portrait. Later, Leith created a makeshift halo behind Steve. While creating this holy composition for the artwork, Leith asked himself, “What am I doing here?”
Then he realized: “I'm trying to tell people that he's good. That he's worth looking at.
“Once I realized I was trying to do that, I started doing that with more intention and I took a lot of cues from iconography and altar pieces that you would see in more liturgical churches. And I used that language – or those symbols – to talk about these folks that I was meeting on the streets. And so I'd assemble the found objects to look like the shape of an icon or an altarpiece. And I'd put gold leaf on trash and I would center every person that I drew right in the middle of the frame and try to do all these things to tell the viewer, ‘Hey, look at this person. They're important.’ ”
The items Leith uses in his art are inspired by each person’s unique story. He once painted a woman named Roberta, who was wearing a bright yellow shirt and shared about her life’s suffering. So Leith sketched her onto a table’s yellow center leaf, and swirled heavy wire on her head like Christ’s crown of thorns.
He even painted a series of tents that people were living in on the streets. The exterior included the portrait(s) of the tent’s owner(s), and the interior included their thoughts.
Leith aims to stay in touch with his portrait subjects as much as he can, some even becoming friends. Due to some people’s nomadic lifestyles, they’re sometimes unable to keep their portraits; however, Leith always tries to at least give them the sketches.
Art isn’t the end game, it’s simply the catalyst
Leith takes his mission a step further by engaging in the Rice & Beans challenge with his family in solidarity for those with scarce access to food.
“This is a way to be conscious of my habits and how many calories I intake,” Leith said. “In comparison to people who don't have as many resources as me. So every time I go to eat rice and beans, I've been a little bit anxious because I don't know if I'm gonna get enough that night. But that's the whole point, right? Is to not feel like you're full. That's the whole point.
“It's about helping form my own soul as well as calling people to wake up to what people are experiencing every day. The Bible in certain places, especially in Isaiah and some of the old prophets, say, ‘Hey, it's not just about fasting from food as a spiritual practice. It's about how you can turn that into action for people who are actually suffering.’ So it's not about an idea as much as it is about turning that into something that actually loves others. The rice and beans challenge allows me to do that because every dollar I don't spend on food, I get to give that to people who need it. And every time I have a little bit of a desire to eat more food after my rice and beans, I can turn that into prayer for those who are suffering that night.”
Leith is in the process of training more artists to also paint portraits with the goal of 25 artists and over 100 portraits a year.
He’d also like to organize another exhibition soon, having already done portrait showcases in Bel Air, on Skid Row and other locations.
“I'm really looking for a partner to give me the right space in the right city,” Leith said. “I really want it to be, of course, in an urban area, outside of a gallery. So, I'm trying to build my own gallery in a parking lot or in a street where people who are living on the streets would be able to come and access it.”
“If you are able to donate to Sacred Streets, a portion of that money goes towards my time to be with people, make the drawings, train other people, create the sacred spaces, exhibit the drawings, it allows me to do the work,” Leith said. “So it's going towards that as well as art supplies and sometimes helping the pragmatic needs of folks.”
Leith encourages people to find ways to sit with someone who is homeless and learn that person’s name: “For me, it's the process of drawing, for you it could be eating a meal together, playing a game together, playing Uno together, drinking a coffee together, playing a sport together.”
To get in touch with Leith, email him at jason@sacredstreets.org or message him on Instagram @jasonleithart.
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