LEWISTON — Robert Shetterly’s portraits don’t just hang on walls — they speak truth.

Shetterly sat before an audience of about 200 at the Bates Mill Atrium Wednesday evening at a Maine Voices Live event to talk with Sun Journal Executive Editor Judith Meyer about his long-running project, Americans Who Tell the Truth. The portraits feature individuals, past and present, who have taken a stand for justice, equity and, above all, truth. The series was was named 2024 Maine Art Education Association’s Art Advocate of the Year.

Shetterly began the series during the months and years after Sept. 11, a time he recalled as rife with misinformation, poor governmental decisions from both sides of the aisle and fear.

“(This) was a therapy project for me during the run-up to the Iraq War, the way that our government was lying about the reason for that, and I had to have some way to deal with that (feeling) alienated from this country,” Shetterly said.

His search led him to educators, scientists, activists and whistleblowers who stood up for the principles of democracy and a free society and who spoke truth. Over two decades, the collection has grown to include more than 270 portraits, each pairing a face with a quote from its subject.

Among the figures are Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet and a key architect of much of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, including Social Security. Others include the great adventurer and environmentalist John Muir, indigenous American activist Winona LaDuke, linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, advocate Sister Helen Prejean and many others. The U.S. Postal service used Shetterly’s portrait of the first African American member of Congress, Shirley Chisholm, for its Black Heritage Series postage stamp.

The portraits do more than push a narrative or ideology — they challenge viewers to identify with the subject in an ongoing struggle to create a fairer society.

“By looking at their eyes, you can feel their spirit, maybe their courage, their determination, their perseverance. It’s all there in their face,” Shetterly said. “And I think that you are invited to make that connection by looking in those eyes.”

Shetterly said painting a portrait is not about exhibiting practical skills — after all, the artist is self-taught — it’s about capturing the essence of the subject’s convictions.

“The process I use in a lot of those paintings is my fingers,” Shetterly said. “I use brushes (and), almost like sculpture, I’m shaping the paint, rubbing the paint and the underpainting comes through so the light is coming through the face.

“It’s really like falling in love with someone. I want my relationship with the person I paint to come back out of me. My intention and my job is to put that energy, that affection, compassion, that admiration and love into (it), because I know if I can get that into the painting, it will come back out very deeply.”

Some borrowers have asked for as few as one or two of the paintings and as many as 20, but the Bates Mill installation is one of only two that have exhibited all the portraits in the series. The portraits have traveled to small schools, libraries and community centers and larger institutions all with the goal of sparking conversations about morals, ethics, responsibility and truth.

Shetterly said part of his artist’s intent is to help students of all ages learn about important historical and contemporary figures. Shetterly himself often visits classrooms where he finds young people working through the same questions he grapples with in his work.

Despite Shetterly’s heavy themes, his tone was hopeful and full of the belief that the power of art can foster change.

Over half the portraits Shetterly has created have come from suggestions and are often of people he did not know about. The suggestions that pay off the most are those that are easily brought into a classroom to inspire younger minds, he said. It gets kids excited, maybe, about the idea of becoming an active citizen or simply learning about one inspiring person’s life.

“There’s an awful lot of depression amongst kids today for a couple of reasons,” he said. “One is that they see adults aren’t doing enough, but they know the condition that we’re always in, and they know that it’s scary, and nothing seems to be happening … If you can show these kids the models of these folks in classrooms … it also shows them that they can make changes, too.”

The exhibit runs until Dec. 15 and is located in the Bates Mill Atrium at 35 Canal St. in Lewiston.