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GREENSBORO — Shannon D. Stewart’s intricate pen and pencil drawing says much about his life.

It depicts a boat, sporting “Team IRC” on its sail, riding rough waves.

“At times my life is a boat in troubled waters,” Stewart wrote on the back. “I pray we can stay afloat. Winds threaten to rip away my sails. Waves come in from all sides. But still, my boat floats on. Go team IRC, calm waters and blue skies straight ahead.”

IRC stands for the Interactive Resource Center. Here, Stewart and others who are homeless or facing homelessness receive help and hope.

Each weekday, they go to this converted Southern Plate Glass building on East Washington Street to shower, wash clothes, use a computer and get help with finding a job.

Several have found something else: nurturing of their artistic talent.

Stewart, 40, lives under a bridge. He carries his art, pens and pencils in a backpack with underwear and socks.

At the IRC, he and others finds a safe, welcoming, sheltered place to draw.

“I just do it to keep my mind occupied, do something positive, and create something that is pretty,” Stewart says.

Now, thanks to Artstock, this weekend’s 14th annual self-guided artists’ studio tour, Stewart and other IRC artists can show their work to the public.

It begins Friday when the IRC hosts Artstock’s preview show, The Community Art Show, with an opening reception. Visitors will see works by four IRC artists hanging with 17 others by local professional artists.

Then, on Saturday and Sunday, the IRC will join 24 galleries and studios in Greensboro and Summerfield showing pieces by nearly 60 artists.

It’s part of the city’s newest arts and culture festival, 17 Days, featuring more than 85 performing and visual arts events and other entertainment.

The IRC will exhibit Stewart’s drawing, Rickey Antwain Edwards’ pencil portrait of the late pop star Michael Jackson, Samuel Kwarteng’s pencil drawing “One Mic,” and Don Ames’ intricate wooden clock.

The Artery in Greensboro and Rains Art and Frame in Summerfield donated the framing for Stewart, Edwards and Kwarteng.

“It will show them (the public) that homeless people have heart and have skills, just like everybody else,” says Rhonda Hyler, another IRC artist.

Summerfield sculptor Carolyn Owen discovered those skills as she sought a preview show locale for Artstock.

“I was looking for wall space to hang paintings, and it had to be free,” Owen says.

The Rev. Mike Aiken, executive director of Greensboro Urban Ministry, suggested the IRC, saying it would fit well with the IRC’s mission to connect homeless people to the larger community.

Owen and artists Jim Gallucci and Joie Lola Chapman pitched the idea to IRC Executive Director Liz Seymour.

“To me, it fits in with our approach,” Seymour says. “We are as interested in what strengths people bring through the door as what needs people bring through the door. But by the time people need us, they have lost confidence in their strengths or they don’t recognize the value of their skills.”

Even before Owen and Artstock became involved, art already was occurring at the IRC. During the summer, Girl Scout Cameron McClellan brought in art supplies to draw out talent.

Local sculptor John Martin enlisted Stewart to help create large molded aluminum spoons as handles for the IRC’s front doors.

Martin also will help IRC artists create an outdoor wall sculpture, which needs sponsors.

Owen has seen how the Community Art Show project has benefitted not only IRC artists but also Artstock artists who stepped in to help.

“I have done a lot of volunteer work, and this rates as one of the most meaningful to me,” Owen says. “It’s seeing miracles every day, the miracles in people’s lives.”

Stewart’s “Team IRC” drawing expresses thanks. It has been priced at $175. If it sells, “it will give me confidence to say that if I can sell that one, I can sell another one,” Stewart says.

It gives him hope that there will come a time when he doesn’t live under a bridge, but in a home where he can draw and keep his artwork safe.

“Someday, with the IRC helping with my art, I will be able to look at that bridge and say, 'I remember when I stayed there.’ ”

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com