Joe Brenman and Darnetta Green with Portrait of Dwayne Erik Green

Artist Joe Brenman and Dwayne’s mother Darnetta Green attended the opening of the second edition of the Souls Shot : Portraits of Victims of Gun Violence exhibiton in November of 2018. Joe and Darnetta formed a bond during the making of the remarkable collage portrait of Dwayne. Being able to tell the stories of lost loved ones is a key component of the Souls Shot project experience. The families are often just asked about the circumstances of the death or maiming instead of being allowed to recall what made them alive.

I was fortunate to be able to hear another mother’s story of her son’s life recently. She was able to describe him vividly in her own word portrait. At one point she said “he wasn’t perfect!” and we sort of laughed because no one has a perfect child, especially a teen (sadly her son was killed before he graduated from high school.) But then it dawned on me that many of the parents I have met have used that same phrase. It made me wonder if it is a kind of armor against the victim blaming that often goes with shooting deaths. The misconceptions about who is being shot and why abound. We hope that engaging people with our artworks will continue to educate people and move then to take action. No one is perfect but imperfection is not a reason to be shot.

Joe Brenman was a true friend of the project and arranged for an exhibition to be hosted by his synagogue, Mishkan Shalom. We found out that he was very ill while he was making the portrait and helping hang the exhibition. He died shortly after it was mounted in the synagogue. Dwayne’s portrait was still hanging there during his memorial service and Darnetta was in attendance and spoke about her friend, Joe.