Random images of faces have shown up in my life since I was a kid. I saw them everywhere and in everything from clouds to drips of motor oil on asphalt to Saturday morning’s pancake batter. Life marched along. I grew up. It wasn’t until an annual holiday visit to Longwood Gardens many years later that I, quite literally, stumbled across a face image. There in the floor was an old brass door keeper— a floor deadbolt plate which is to lock a French door. Its securely fitted brass-screw eyes cocked at oddly differing angles, the deadbolt’s recess formed a goofy grin. I just stood there, staring at it. This quirky, random face was like an old friend I hadn’t seen in decades having come around for a holiday visit.

My friends hollered for me to catch up, so I snapped a quick phone-picture for the memory.

The very next week, as I hurried in to the office from my car, there in the asphalt of the parking lot was another random face. I quickly snapped another phone-pic and went about my day. This went on for several weeks, and after just a few months I had collected nearly fifty face images.

I was having such fun with these faces, I decided they needed to be shared; but how … where … ? Who would not think I was completely crazy-town seeing faces in objects, and who would truly enjoy them. The bigger question I wanted to answer was “Is there a way for these face images to be of benefit?”

I emailed the top children’s hospitals in the Philadelphia area, and explained the photos that I had collected. Asking for a chance to share the face photos with the children, I hoped they would offer the children a humorous and easy source of relief from their daily medical interactions. Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children invited me to pilot the program in their recreation room. With several prints of each face image in hand, and with absolutely no clue what I was doing, my son joined me at Nemours on a beautiful Saturday morning in June 2014.

Not many children came to the rec room that morning. The ones who did showed signs of deep fatigue and had difficulty connecting. Illness is tough and can be hugely exhausting. Though I had prepared to engage with them in several minutes of conversation and answering their questions about the faces, it was quickly clear that short and simple was best. We explained what the pictures were, offered for them to choose any of them for their room. Watching their sweet-yet-pale faces light up when they found a face image they liked was purely incredible.

We learned a lot that day. Namely that building a digital platform for the faces is a delivery to better serve hospitalized children, particularly for those quarantined.

… then faces sprung up everywhere, like they had heard they could be on the internet and were auditioning or something! So far, I have collected over 400 face images.

After many different avenues and platforms I tried and tested and then scrapped for this project, I eventually built out a web site. Unfortunately, the yearly expense was too great, and the platform I chose too cumbersome. I subsequently deleted the site. Now, I am very excited to have the face images present here and enfolded within this site. It is certainly my passion project.

Please share, for their health, and thank you.

;^D