I had never met Sam before her session, she applied for the project in late 2025 and this Spring we started to connect and get ready to schedule her portraits. She told me she had found the project after her brother Alex died, when she lived in New York. Parts of her story, even from…
Tag: writing
Lotus TheVibe
The first time I met Lotus TheVibe was a few years ago at an event called Blooming With Grief. She was a live painter during the event and I had a pop-up Faces of Fortitude gallery. She introduced herself at the end of the event and expressed interest in the project. Life has taken its…
Dr. G
Dr. G and I met in the world of death care in 2022, both part of a collective of tending humans being gathered to begin assisting for a local community offering from A Sacred Passing called – Suicide Suppers. A held space and curated meal for those wanting to die and actively making the choice…
8 years of Faces of Fortitude
October 28th, 2017 – 8 years ago today, I posted this first portrait announcing the Faces of Fortitude project. The portrait was my own, along with the story of the loss of my brother Jimmy. You can’t find a lot of photos that I posed for in those years. I didn’t like myself very much…
Nicole
I talk a lot about how my portrait sessions with sibling loss are always so tender for me, the loss of a sibling tragically and suddenly – is an experience no one really understands or talks about. It’s a very unique kind of loss. So often times, there are similarities – which of course, bring…
Travis
After living for 50 sun spins and counting, I have separated my lifetime into eras. At one point in time I worked a lot in music, my music industry era. Early 2000’s in Seattle were quite a time in music history, and someone who wrote about it well was a music journalist I met during…
Blooming with Grace
For the past 3 years I have started to center a daily routine for myself. Hydration, movement, brain work, social goals etc. One of the parts of my routine is stretching out my body. I had a moment of clarity recently, something that I find happens often during those quiet moments with myself. I stood,…
Kristine
When I was 7 years old, I met a girl that lived around the corner, her name was Kristine. She quickly became a playmate, both latchkey kids who liked to climb trees and swing as high as we could – I don’t have a lot of childhood memories, but I remember moments with Kristine, and…
Lena
Lena and I met via the Faces IG page first, she followed me and I would see her posts about dance, mental health and her life – not knowing then, her connection to suicide. The fact is, most people on social media follow me because within the stories told via this project, they find something…
The Faces of Fortitude 