Art building community, one face at a time

In the spring of 2002, graphic artist Brian Nesline began manifesting a dream by approaching two homeless men and asking them to draw self-portraits. One by one, he and his now-wife, Mary, collected self-portraits from individuals all over the city of Buffalo, until he had enough faces to create a new art form. Each face became a mosaic to build the whole of something entirely different: a buffalo. Thus Faces of Buffalo was born.

In Brian’s work, art is the medium where everyone is equal. Art itself becomes community, as each face, from artist and non-artist, from poor to rich, from child to elderly person comes together to form a whole that is made from equal parts—beginning with your face. While Brian continues to gather self-portraits from volunteers in person, he also uses an online form and posts Faces of the Week to highlight the many varied contributions he receives.

Brian uses the mosaics of self-drawn faces to create other art work, such as the art gallery, parks, city hall, nature scenes, sporting equipment and most recently—Barack Obama. His prints hang in the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and many other venues. “Faces of Buffalo for Charity” has helped raise money for a variety of local schools, companies and organizations. Brian uses the mosaic images he designs with participants’ self-portraits to create matted prints, note cards and greeting cards, which are then sold to raise funds. His business Faces for Fundraising brings the concept of Community Art Mosaics anywhere.

Brian has a new dream. He would like to spread the concept of community engagement through art to create Faces of America. His vision goes beyond that, to Faces of the World, as the possibility of art healing the global community exists in the realm of his imagination. Ode readers certainly can relate to this dream. We can draw a world where all of us merge to make something beautiful, as we, one by one, create our own beauty.