Midday sunlight shines through the windows of Orlando City Hall’s Terrace Gallery, casting brightness onto the white gallery walls.
But there’s a heavy feeling in this room. The gallery walls are lined with 49 portraits: one for each person killed during the Pulse nightclub shooting 10 years ago, on June 12, 2016.
The tragedy rocked Orlando and communities worldwide. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Nothing can ever fully heal the pain inflicted by the Pulse nightclub shooting, especially for the families and loved ones of those killed, said Colleen Ardeman. The artist and founder of this traveling memorial at City Hall only hopes the exhibit may bring some small dose of comfort to those affected by the tragedy.
“You’re remembered; we remember you,” she said. “We just hope for continued healing in your life. And we're here for you.”
RELATED: 10 years after Pulse, a community’s heartache, grief, and growth
‘Created in community’
‘Created in Community: Portraits of Pulse,’ was previously showcased in other parts of Central Florida — Gotha, Oakland, Windermere — as well as in Chicago, Ardeman said. The exhibit is a community effort, with portraits painted by area residents, plus between 15 and 17 families of those killed in the 2016 shooting.
“We helped the families paint their own loved ones,” Ardeman said.
The process began in 2017 and took a long time, over many painting sessions. The portraits were made in a paint-by-number format: filled in with color over time, section by section, until each face emerged from the canvas.
Not every face was ultimately finished, though. Ardeman said that was intentional, meant to highlight the “building blocks” of how people are made: “with care, with thoughtfulness, with creativity, with a hand of intelligence.”
“We are woven together in God's image, and so we're weaving this painting together,” Ardeman said.
‘Their lives were unfinished’
The incompleteness of some of the portraits is intentional for another reason, too, according to District 4 City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. “Some of these portraits are unfinished, because their families said their lives were unfinished.”
Pointing out one of those portraits, of Miguel Angel Honorato, Sheehan became emotional: tearing up as she explained he was shot in the face. “That's why his face isn't finished.”
An artist herself, Sheehan said it was the honor of her lifetime to be able to paint one of the portraits: of Luis Daniel Wilson Leon, who went by “Dani.” His family gave Sheehan their blessing, she said.
“It was the most important thing I've ever painted,” Sheehan said. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever signed with a heart.”
In the time since the shooting, Sheehan said, Central Florida communities have gone through lots of pain. But some important healing has also taken place.
“I hate that any community has to go through this. It's a sad fellowship: all the communities who have had gunshot violence, mass shootings,” Sheehan said. “But I think Orlando came together in a way that was amazing and beautiful.”
In the years since 2016, some local religious leaders who had previously “scorned” members of the LGBTQ+ community have become more welcoming, Sheehan said. (Although the Pulse shooter did not set out to kill LGBTQ+ people specifically, the nightclub was an important meeting place for members of the LGBTQ+ community, who make up many of those killed and affected by the tragedy.)
“There was a tremendous amount of change that happened in this community after this. And these young people's lives did make a difference,” Sheehan said.
Following Pulse, many survivors, frontline responders and other residents directly affected by the massacre mobilized to form the Contigo Fund. According to the advocacy group, it has directed millions of dollars in support to LGBTQ+ initiatives across Central Florida in the years since the tragedy.
‘Life is precious’
For both Sheehan and Ardeman, moving forward does not look like forgetting or “moving on” from the pain of the Pulse shooting, but honoring and learning from it.
“It's okay to grieve, it's okay to be emotional. It's okay to get help,” Sheehan said.
The traveling memorial underscores the sacredness of life, Ardeman said.
“I like what our motto is: ‘from adversity springs seeds of greatness,’” Ardeman said. “So we don't want to stay anchored in what it was, but what we can learn from it: which is how important life is. From womb to tomb, from beginning to end, life is precious.”
The traveling memorial will be up at City Hall through August 23. Meanwhile, plans are underway for a permanent Pulse memorial in Orlando.
