Portraits

The human experience has always been at the root of my desire to create art. Fortunately, that interest was encouraged. The resulting body of work includes persons from many places in the world. A number of different kinds of media have been used but, the media of choice for the largest percentage has been acrylic on a number of different surfaces. This gallery contains a sampling of that work. It includes pieces from several large projects along with portaits of family members and others. Two of the most prominent collections represented are the Share Series, which was commissioned and the Refugee Series which was my own project. The Refugee Series was designed to respond to the plight of persons who came to this continent with the dream of creating a better life for themselves and their children, just as my own ancestors did one hundred years ago.

The first series mentioned in this gallery was commissioned by the Share Program. It was co-sponsored by the General Offices of the Church of the Brethren. The original collection of sixteen portraits was used to call attention to many of the self help projects sponsored by Share across the United States. These paintings were executed in acrylic on canvas. Some of the other works were an outgrowth of opportunities made available by travel to Share locations but were not commissioned by them.

The Refugee Series was executed on an unusual surface using raw jute canvas with burnt umber acrylic wash. The resulting image resembled sepia tone in nature. The earthy texture and color was perfect for those who were to be painted. There were 36 portraits in the original collection which was exhibited by invitation in the Canon Office Building and other places on Capitol Hill during the Immigration Hearings in the early 1980s. Eight of the original exhibit were purchased for permanent display in the rotunda of the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. where they remained for almost twenty years. Other portraits from this exhibit were purchased by private collectors. The ones you see in this gallery remain in my collection.

Information has been attached to each portrait giving brief information about the person(s) and their situation. Both projects were powerful experiences on many levels. I am so pleased to have been involved with them.