This series began around 2018 (I think), while I was volunteering at a street mission called Urban Hope in Cambridge, Ontario.
Urban Hope is the focal point of the Cambridge Vineyard Christian Fellowship’s commitment to providing meaningful support to people who are struggling in any way: street people, people who are lonely, addicts, people on fixed incomes who have difficulty making ends meet, people experiencing homelessness, and people who simply need friendship. Anyone who shows up is cared for. Their motto is, “Come as you are. You will be loved.”
Urban Hope provides a judgment-free environment where people can receive a free meal, clothing, groceries, a shower, coffee, prayer and many other forms of no-strings-attached care and ministry. During my time there learned that the most important thing offered was neither food nor clothing, but friendship, along with a safe, judgment-free place where people could relax, talk, and simply be themselves.
I tried to model my service after Jesus. He loved and served people where they were, meeting them with compassion rather than judgement. He walked alongside them toward healing and transformation, but only when they were ready. An invitation built on friendship and trust.
I started volunteering at Urban Hope one day every month for several years, then from 2018 to 2025 I was typically there three days a week. I did a little of everything, including facilitating an addiction recovery group.
Urban Hope transformed me. When I first started, I was shy around many of the rougher guests and, to be honest, a little frightened of some of them. By the time I left many of us had become friends.
I began taking portraits of both guests and fellow volunteers as a way of celebrating who we are and what we were doing together. Today, I am revisiting those photographs and creating vibrant pastel portraits of my friends from Urban Hope, along with other people I have known throughout my life.
The central idea behind this series is simple: there is no us and them, there is only us. The moment we begin seeing people as something other than “us” we begin to isolate ourselves from one another.
My goal is to create portraits—in both pastel and photography—of anyone and everyone in a respectful and celebratory way. We are all simply people, and I want to see us all as unique, interesting, and beautiful. Some of my subjects are people struggling with addiction; others are businesspeople, and just regular folks. I want to portray every person with the same respect and dignity.
While my photography is precise and razor-sharp. My drawings are Fauvist, abstract, and expressionistic. They are not illustrations, they are emotional expressions—attempts to depict something I simply don’t have the words for.
I don’t draw because I want to.
I draw because I have to.
I didn’t choose this style.
It’s simply what happens.
Original art and archival prints available for sale, contact me (click here) for more info.