Get a book of the first 50 portraits and help make the next 50 possible.

You can make a tax deductible donation on the 100 Faces website here . Donations on the Kickstarter site are not tax deductible because you get the gifts in return.

How can we picture the  American experience of war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

More than 2 million people have gone from America into these wars.  How we think of their experience of war effects our world, it shapes how we make decisions about war and peace in the future.  

What is your picture of the American experience of war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I have been working on the 100 Faces project for the last 6 years.  The work is now halfway done. With your help it can continue.

When complete, the 100 Faces  project will consist of 100 Portraits of people who represent the wide span of the American experience of war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Each portrait will be accompanied by a placard featuring a a brief bio and a statement written by the person pictured. The statements are decided entirely by the people and are not censored or edited for content. Each person is encouraged to read all the other statements in the project and to add something different--to add their part to the big picture.  

Taken as a whole, their statements challenge all preconceptions and sweeping generalizations about going from America into to these theaters of war.  The statements create a powerful emotional space.  The exhibition enlivens public dialogue through representing a big picture of the American personal journey through these wars in a way that does not glorify or gloss over differences of opinion and experience.

Posthumous portraits are included in this group and for these portraits the families have chosen the words that accompany the paintings.

I have worked with a sociologist to determine how to create a big picture of the American experience of these wars.  

When the project is done, anyone who has gone from America into these wars should be able to enter this exhibition and feel some specific ties to several of the people pictured there.  

Since the people pictured freely express a wide range of experiences and perspectives, the exhibition can be used as a starting point for education about the nature of the American involvement, as a place to contemplate one's own experience of war, and as a powerful context in which to have public dialogue on topics related to war and peace.

The next exhibition of the work is at the Canal Gallery in Holyoke, MA in September and October with an opening on Sept. 9 at 6:00-9:00. This exhibition will include the first 50 portraits and statements.  

"The integration of sociology and art in the 100 Faces project puts this work at the forefront of hybrid forms."*                                                                               

Louisa McCall, Co-Director, Artists in Context

*'hybrid forms' meaning collaborative art, the paintings are done in traditional oil techniques

"This project uniquely captures the human dimension of war."

Manson K. Brown

Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard

Senior Advisor for Transportation to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2004

The Purpose of this Fund Drive:

Help start the next 50 portraits by bringing people to the studio.

Since I am trying to fill in this wide picture of the American experience it gets harder and harder to find the most appropriate people for the portraits.  Now many people have to travel from around the country.

This is where your help is most needed right now: bringing people to the studio.  I have carefully selected a group to sponsor with this drive.  These people have said, "Yes." They can come to the studio if they have some help.  They are willing to put aside their lives.  They believe in this work and will come offer their names, words, and likenesses to the public through this project.

Often it is not easy for people to express themselves publicly about their time in war.  Some of the statements you see next to the portraits in the 100 Faces project took that person months, even years  to create.

It is essential to meet each person face to face.

Meeting each person  for just one day makes it possible to do the type of portrait this project requires.  If the portraits are of good quality and interest they will help the project endure.  Each portrait takes 40-80 hours. I start from life then continue to work from memory, photographs, and, sometimes life casts.

If we reach the goal of  $8,200 you will succeed in bringing these people to the studio to start their portraits:

Tom Yasko

Donald Chapman

Alma Jennings

Catlin Kentta

Jeffrey Torres

Jeffery Dale

Raymond Brigman

Michael Eliassen

Ray Flores

Vernon Davis

If we surpass the goal you can help bring more people in starting with:

Sandra Porter

Ben Rollins

Chip LeDuff

And there are more applicants waiting...

If we can raise $25,000  we can cover the travel of all the remaining participants for this project and completing this major part of the work.

If all travel is funded the project can be completed in about two more years.

If we surpass the $25,000 figure, or it is possible to get people to the studio for less than this, the funds will be applied to: 

Supplies and studio costs

The artist's time

Exhibition costs

Endowing the exhibition so it can find a permanent home

To learn more go to the website: 

http://www.100facesofwarexperience.org/

50 Portraits are completed, 47 are now posted on the website, Numbers 48, 49, and 50 will be posted over the coming weeks, check back to the website,

This link below explains how people are selected for the 100 Faces project

http://www.100facesofwarexperience.org/selection-process/

If you would like to be pictured in this project fill out an application:

http://www.100facesofwarexperience.org/apply/