An Artist and a Mother Speak
This morning Matteo Ladonisi from 6ABC Action News came to see the portraits at the Presbyterian Church in Chestnut Hill. He spent over two hours with artist Garth Herrick and Stephanie Johnson, mother of Erica Elyse Hillyard. Garth, who participated last year as well, was randomly paired with Stephanie, which is how the Souls Shot Portrait Project works. Ironically, Garth already knew Stephanie and even knew her daughter, Erica, as a girl growing up. Both Stephanie and Garth spoke so movingly about their experience creating the portrait of Erica for the Souls Shot Portrait Project and about the important role of the project in the lives of the families and friends of the victims.
Stephanie emphatically exclaimed “these people aren’t dead” as she motioned to all the portraits in the gallery. She went on to describe, beautifully, how each of the people portrayed spoke to her in the way they smiled, their posture, and choices made by the artists while trying to portray a life lived. She feels she is “mother to them all”. We hear from so,so many family members how one bullet does not change one person but a community of people. The effects are far reaching and terrible. As part of a solution she urged education, starting with babies, on how to live in a world with inevitable conflict and learn to deal with it in a responsible, thoughtful manner.
Garth spoke of how artwork can’t be ignored. The effect of being in a room with all the portraits is profoundly touching and gripping.
His portrait of Erica does what many of artists have done in similar ways; it includes a subtle, beautiful reference to the passing of the person into a different plane. Garth lovingly blurred the outline of Erica’s seated figure, blending it into the visible grain of the wood panel on which it’s painted. Many artists with the project also choose surfaces or mediums that reflect a contemplative approach: the warmth of a wood panel, a stretched T shirt, an encaustic surface meant to be touched and stroked.
Garth also mentioned that before he became involved with the Souls Shot Portrait Project gun violence was an abstraction for him. Many of our artists would echo that statement. It is a harrowing experience to create these portraits but a profoundly transfixing and transforming one.
Sadly this epidemic gun violence and the toll it takes has become very, very real for us. In fact, Garth made a portrait last year of William Bethel IV and recently found out that the young man who was with William when he was shot and killed has also just been shot and killed.
Gun violence is no longer an abstraction for us.
At our virtual event last Thursday we heard from Adam Garber from CeaseFirePA and from City Council Member-At-Large Isaiah Thomas. We urge you, dear readers, to not do nothing about gun violence and to seek out ways you can make a positive change in the culture of guns in our communities. Please visit our resources page for ways you can make a difference.
CLICK HERE to see our full video of Virtual Event ‘Celebrating Souls’
CLICK HERE to see the 6ABC Action News feature on our 2020-21 exhibition from the interview mentioned above.
I Will Miss Your Growing, Your Cries, Your Laughter, Portrait of Erica Elyse Hillyard by Garth Herrick
Portrait of William Bethel IV by Garth Herrick