July 26th, 2023

CGS Celebrates Pride with “Ordinary People” Art Installation by Peter Moen

Silicon Valley celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride in late August. As part of our Pride celebrations we’re thrilled to share “Ordinary People”, a portraiture art installation by our very own Peter Moen!  You can view Peter’s work in the Narthex through the end of August. Watch for more details about our special Pride Worship Service and participation in the Silicon Valley Pride Parade and Festival.


Artist Statement

Through portraiture, Ordinary People illustrates that the LGBTQ+ community consists of people. We can be visionary, ironic, boisterous, shy, or just “normal”. Ordinary People is comprised of over fifty portrait paintings. This exhibition is intended to be simple yet conceptually relevant. It is an introduction to LGBTQ+ faces without any attempt to lead an overt narrative. I feel, people are just people and our similarities and differences are what help create a well-rounded society that makes life interesting.

Over the past year I have reached out to the LGBTQ+ community, of which I am a member of, and asked anyone who wanted to show our diversity in age, race, gender, and lifestyle to step forward and allow me to paint their portrait. What you see looking back at you are individuals who respect life, the planet and people and hope that you see them simply as other human beings. For those less familiar with the acronym, the + stands for LGBTQ+ people and allies, which is anyone that supports our community even if you do not identify with the community itself. 

About the Artist

Peter Moen likes to use his skills as a portrait painter to make comments on current events by using partially abstract elements in his paintings. His range covers highly realistic paintings to those that possess a stylized aesthetic. Each of his subjects has an emotive quality capturing the true essence of each person. More often than not, Moen is not interested in photo realism and so his paintings result in a more interpretive quality while he inserts a bit of abstraction. He primarily uses oil paint on wood panels, canvas, or other substrates like single-use plastic when commenting on ocean plastic pollution. He also works on large scale commissioned murals and sculptural installations. 

Moen grew up during the ‘60s in South San Jose, California. He went to U.C. Berkeley and became an engineer for a rocket company. In 2006, he took a drawing class where he discovered he could actually draw well. That initiated his academic art pursuit where he first received an Associate of Science degree at San Jose City College in Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Art Degree in Pictorial Arts at San Jose State University. Since then, he has been widely exhibiting in the Bay Area and throughout the United States.