William Stoehr
Art For Hope - The Faces We Carry
My art is influenced by the ideas of Cezanne and the seminal Cubists and from concepts based on my developing understanding of the visual brain.
My mission is to confront substance use disorder (SUD) and the stigma that shadows it by encouraging dialogue, deepening understanding, and inspiring action through art.
My sister died of an opioid overdose. She might still be alive if it were not for prescription opioids and the stigma which suffocates discussion, blocks action and causes pain.
My sister OD’d but, maybe to the millions affected, I can be part of a solution. I want to use my art to normalize the discussion and to help erase the stigma. Come for the art but stay for the message.
They Have Faces
Substance use disorder never affects just one person. The faces I paint represent a community of parents, partners, children, and friends, as well as clinicians, policymakers, and others who shape understanding and guide access to care and recovery.
It is all there - terror, intolerance, guilt, shame and helplessness as well as resolve, forgiveness, love and hope.
I want these exhibitions, together with presentations, educational materials and collaboration with kindred organizations, to break through the wall of stigma, confront the realities of mental health, spark meaningful conversation, extend the dialogue beyond the gallery and into the community and ultimately inspire action before it is too late.
The Physical Exhibit
My work is frequently exhibited in gallery venues but I’ve also successfully shown my work in a variety of unconventional settings such as, temporary pop-up galleries, a vacant storefront on a busy pedestrian mall, an industrial warehouse, hospital/clinics, an airport, government buildings, churches, lobbies, hallways, and even a movie theater. I’ve suspended paintings from ceilings, propped them on cinder blocks, hung them 20 feet high on the wall, set them flat on the floor, mounted them on wheeled dollies, shown them on a full-size theater screen, hung them as banners and displayed them on large monitors.
My current exhibit is designed to be flexible. It can scale to suit the space and has been presented in more than 12 different locations to date. The flexibility of my work allows me to collaborate with you to design an exhibition tailored to your space, community and goals.
Examples of past installations include:
University of Wisconsin–Stout: 230 feet of wall space with 14 seven-foot paintings and 10 digital monitors
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma: 250 linear feet with 30 paintings
Lowe Gallery, Atlanta: 400+ linear feet with 50 paintings
Foothills Art Center: 200 linear feet with 20 paintings, 12 digital/hybrid paintings on aluminum and video
University of Colorado Denver Fulginiti Pavilion: 120 linear feet with 12 seven-foot paintings and video
Boulder Creative Collective: 200+ linear feet with 30 large paintings, including 16 suspended from the ceiling rafters
University of Michigan: Digital art shown on a full-size theater screen
Denver Space Gallery: 2,500 sq. ft. with 25 paintings and 8 monitors
Pine Street Church, Boulder: 14 seven-foot paintings displayed on movable trolleys
Natl Institute on Drug Abuse: Halls and visitor areas with 20 large paintings and 15 digital hybrid paintings
I can adjust the number of paintings, prints, banners, monitors and projectors to fill a wide range of spaces.
Installation time, depending on the size of the exhibit, is usually two days or less. Here is a sampling of exhibit photos.
About the Art
My exhibits bring together individuals and ideas at the intersection of art, science and medicine. I paint large-scale acrylic on canvas and I also create hybrid-digital paintings. My art is most influenced by the ideas of the seminal Cubists and my interest in the visual brain.
For the early Cubists, painting was not meant to be passively observed but actively experienced. They sought to move beyond depiction - to evoke a greater reality. I am in search of this reality. It drives my hunt for methods and techniques in the service of my mission.
For me, Cubism became a way of perceiving rather than representing the world. They intuited what neuroscience now confirms: vision is constructed by the brain. For more about my methods click here.
Each large acrylic painting begins with a single face and an ambiguous expression. The shared gaze and uncertain context draw viewers in, inviting them to complete the image with their own mental image and then to create the narrative based on their own experience and emotional state.
My digital-hybrid paintings combine traditional painting, digital drawing and photographic manipulation. Each begins with a repurposed image of one of my own unfinished acrylic-on-canvas works. I transfer the image to my iPad, where I continue to draw and build layers of marks and graphic elements. Using photographic tools, I dodge, burn, saturate and manipulate elements - creating a new, original work entirely by my hand. These images are displayed on monitors, projected at theater scale or printed on a variety of media.
My art has been exhibited worldwide at universities, art centers, museums, and galleries. Follow this link for a list of exhibitions, awards and more.
These exhibitions and related activities have received considerable national and international media coverage including NPR Morning Edition, NPR Atlanta City Lights, BBC, ABC/Scripps and the Associated Press plus many more publications, TV broadcasts, podcasts and interviews. A sample of media coverage can be seen here.
Recent Collaborations
My recent exhibit at Space Gallery - Denver was included in the programing for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence CPDD annual conference and the exhibit featured remarks by the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Deputy Director.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse's Director and I participated in a panel discussion along with professionals from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus at the opening of my University of Colorado exhibition.
The Foothills Art Center exhibition included a panel with pertinent participants from Kaiser Permanente and a presentation from the Colorado School of Mines on the neuroscience of addiction.
I co-created a public service video with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
I have been a guest speaker and lecturer addressing my art methods and science and substance use disorder and stigma at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), at the University of Wisconsin - Stout, Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, the Washington DC Hospital Association, the Colorado Department of Human Services, the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities, Case Western Reserve University, the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Director's Awards Ceremony and the University of Colorado Conference for Interdisciplinary Drug and Alcohol Research.
I presented at the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute Science of Arts Symposium. This event focused on the intersection of artistic practice and brain science - exploring how the arts and neuroscience relate to one another and to human perception and cognition. Later I created a three-part series for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art regarding the brain and art.
Two of my paintings are prominently featured in the opening credits in the two-part documentary Listen to the Silence: Women Trapped In The Opioid Epidemic which aired on ABC and PBS stations nationwide. These were produced by the six-time Emmy Award winning Diva Communications with whom I collaborate.
