On Tuesday, after two days of naps and nothingness, I decided it was time to do some laundry. I started a pile and then remembered an email I needed to check so I opened up my laptop. There was a new email (not the one I was looking for) that said “Channel 4 News Story.” What news story was someone sending meee….ohhh noooo…. Continue reading →

I just woke up from a two hour nap so I think it’s time to share some photos from the first public unveiling of I Am More: Massachusetts at the Worcester PopUp on Saturday. Continue reading →

For the past week, 3 am arrives with a torrent of concerns. A year and a half of work will be unveiled this Saturday and the shy artist who usually just stays home has had to manage invitations, press, framing, printing, transportation, community outreach, setup, food, and music. I keep telling myself, all I need is 20 framed portraits and 20 printed essays, and we have a show. Well, currently, two portraits are still at the frame shop and the essays are still at the printers. Hence, 3 am. Continue reading →

When I look for display locations for I Am More I’m not looking for traditional fine arts spaces, I’m looking for largest number of eyeballs passing through who might be affected. It was for that reason that I approached the largest working regional theatre in Massachusetts—North Shore Music Theatre. Continue reading →

I finished the last portrait of the I Am More: Massachusetts series this morning. I hope it explains what the last two and a half years have meant to me:

Last week we had a first. We hung the original I Am More portraits on pristine virgin walls, so fresh that the painter was still working in the vicinity and maybe watching us a little warily. We were in the brand-new wing of North Shore Medical Center in Salem, MA.

In March of 2018 I walked through the snowy woods of southwestern Massachusetts with a complete stranger, Ryan. That walk, and our conversation, became the first portrait of I Am More: Massachusetts. This series of twenty portraits and essays from Gloucester, Newburyport, Wenham, Lynn, Mattapan, Reading, Burlington, Littleton, Mashpee, Westborough, Worcester, Lawrence, Feeding Hills, Amherst, Peabody and Leverett evolved from the original I Am More series of mostly local friends and acquaintances who shared with me, and you, how they were more than their mental illness, health diagnosis, physical disability and life situation. Continue reading →

For the month of August the original I Am More portraits have found a home at Acton Memorial Library, which is very special for our family since it was our library for fifteen years. And they’re not tucked away in a back corner or room, they’re right in the middle of everything:

This morning Iain and I took down the Sawyer Free Library I Am More display here in Gloucester, and we couldn’t make a single trip to the car without library patrons stopping to tell us how much the exhibit impacted them. It’s good to get out of the house every now and then! I spent some time when I got home reading the guestbook, which is not something we’ve had available since the opening exhibit, and I wanted to share with you, and especially the subjects, just some of the comments: Continue reading →

It took me a year to find Danny. I wanted to include a teenager from Boston in I Am More: Massachusetts but I couldn’t find one. I contacted schools, organizations, friends, with no luck. Maybe I didn’t need a teen, maybe I could live without Boston in the series. Wrong and wrong. One day I was scrolling the news on our local NPR website and saw a story about a student who had written a song inspired by Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s first speech on the floor of Congress. I watched his music video on YouTube and within minutes had composed an email to him asking him if he might consider participating. A few weeks later we were on a rooftop on Boylston Street: Continue reading →