Art is a powerful catalyst for change …
The JOY Project
This project was born from hearing one word echo again and again: invisible.
The experience of invisibility touches people from every walk of life: in Transgender Day of Visibility, in the stories of elderly women, people with disabilities, minorities, middle-aged moms, and in my own life as a widow and single mother.
A photograph can be more than a beautiful image; it can help someone feel TRULY SEEN, while inviting others recognize HUMANITY, TENDERNESS, and STRENGTH where they might not have looked before.
This project features raw, largely un-retouched black-and-white portraits of people who know the isolation of invisibility, displayed in everyday community spaces so viewers can encounter them unexpectedly. These images are honest, vulnerable, and deeply joyful—a celebration of the light that exists in every body and every life. My hope is that viewers see themselves reflected, remember the joy in their own imperfect beauty, and walk away with a renewed sense of presence, humanity, and undeniable joy—anything BUT invisibility.
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This program/project was supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada.