“Through portraiture, Ordinary People illustrates that the LGBTQIA+ community consists of people just like everyone else. We can be visionary, ironic, boisterous, shy, or just “normal”. It is sad that many LGBTQIA+ individuals feel isolated from the rest of society. Ordinary People is comprised of over fifty portrait paintings. This exhibition is intended to be simple yet conceptually relevant. It is an introduction to LGBTQIA+ faces without any attempt to lead an overt narrative. I feel, people are just people and our similarities and differences are what help create a well-rounded society that makes life interesting.

Over the past year I have reached out to the LGBTQIA+ community, of which I am a member of, and asked anyone who wanted to show our diversity in age, race, gender, and lifestyle to step forward and allow me to paint their portrait. What you see looking back at you are individuals who respect life, the planet and people and hope that you see them simply as other human beings. For those less familiar with the acronym, the + stands for allies (and other things) which is anyone that supports our community even if you do not identify with the community itself.

For the duration of Ordinary People, I will continue to paint portraits to add to the growing face of America. A posted schedule will be at the Art Kiosk for volunteers to sign up to sit in front of me while I paint them. The best part of my painting process has been the conversations that organically take place and getting to know each other. Alternatively, I will paint some people from provided photographs when there is bad weather. All subjects are invited to come on the last day of the exhibition to take their painting home as a gift from me, Fung Collaboratives, and RCIA.

I feel it is important to continue to expand the installation and will document each artwork so that a growing collection of faces will exist on my website. All subjects remain anonymous.”