Over the course of two days at the 2025 Festival of Faiths, artist-in-residence Alayna Altman spent hours sketching portraits and gathering the stories of nearly 100 attendees. The result is a nearly 6 feet by 4 feet mixed media collage/painting — a vivid representation of sacred belonging.
The Louisville-based artist says portraiture has long been her passion, and this project was a beautiful reminder of why. In the passage below, Alayna describes this creative endeavor.
“Just sort of walking through the process: So each subject and I were together for about 10 minutes, and I felt deep gratitude for everyone who sat with me. First, I made a quick line drawing on transparent paper. Then I traced the drawing, and I chose a colored background, on which whoever I sat with got to write what ‘sacred belonging’ means to them. Each portrait was a moment of deep connection and vulnerability, and the stories — of love, loss, tragedy, resiliency — moved me. I glued these portraits together to create a tapestry of both faces and words combined, all of these faces nestled together. Some words may be slightly hidden, but that’s sort of the nature of ourselves. We have the parts that we see, the parts that are hidden — but everything belongs.” — Alayna Altman, artist in residence, 2025 Festival of Faiths
