How One Michigan Ally Mom Turned Post-Election Anger Into a National Project for LGBTQ+ Solidarity

Michigan mother channels fear for her queer children into nationwide collaborative artwork

Published: June 26, 2025 | Last Updated: June 26, 2025

While fear and rage are rarely welcome visitors, they sometimes spark unexpected creativity.

The day after the 2024 presidential election, Lora Garcelon found herself frustrated, afraid and overwhelmed. She responded by launching an art project that people around the country have contributed to and has now been displayed in two Michigan locations.

The Together Art Project, a collection of square collages co-created with global artists, is Lora's answer to those who hate. Four panels now house 25 pieces of art each, with Lora working on a fifth as requests continue pouring in.

It started in a doctor's office.

"I was in the waiting room and on the radio we get Donald Trump's voice and I can't get away from it because it's on the radio," Lora said. "I am so angry and afraid for my children."

When she got home, she went outside and started slinging paint, sticks, rocks and other objects at watercolor paper to work out her rage. Lora didn't stop there.

While visiting her nonbinary youngest child at college, she listened to the anger and fear that many of their friends were experiencing. Many were staying in bed and seeking out suicide prevention resources.

"That's when I got the idea of moving forward, of not just making angry art," Lora said. "I saw the huge need for something that I have the tools to help [with]."

She attended a wedding that same week in which the bride's gay brother walked with his partner down the aisle and the family spoke about inclusion at the reception.

"It made my heart happy to see people of the queer community being treated with love and inclusion and kindness," Lora said. "That's the thought I was building on and if you look at the project, one of the collages in the very center is that couple who was walking down the aisle, holding hands."

She began reaching out to other artists, asking them to help transform the art made in anger into a message of hope, love and inclusion. The process works like this: Lora creates the initial squares by flinging paint and expressing her anger on large sheets of watercolor paper, then cuts them into seven-inch squares and sends them to artists who transform them into pieces of hope.

She received nine squares initially, which was what she expected. Except news kept spreading. In the months that followed, as of early March, she had sent out 185 squares and received requests for 50 more.

2 Cleary photo Lora Garcelon standing by art 1 — Lora Garcelon in front of a portion of The Together Art Project. Courtesy photo

Her husband built the panels out of plywood. She covered the panels with copies of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and the Obergefell decision and other Supreme Court rulings that supported LGBTQ+ people.

"The initial squares are gone and they are in the collage," Lora said. "I fling paint, I write stuff and I get out my anger. I take a large sheet of watercolor paper, which is 2-by-3 feet, and I cut it down to 7-inch squares."

In addition to paintings, contributors have covered squares with photography, mixed media collages or written words of support or poetry. The youngest contributor is 8 while the oldest, at 91, is Lora's father, who wrote "Grandpa loves you" on a square.

Keane Garcelon, Lora's son who practices law in Chicago, contributed a collage and has been helping review written materials related to the project. Keane, who is gay, said the project was a culmination of the ongoing support he and his siblings have received from both their parents.

"This collaboration between my parents and other artists made sense to me," Keane said. "My mom is emblematic of what happens when you have someone who listens to their queer children."

Since he made his piece, Keane said he's gone through many different stages of emotion and processing.

"I'm glad that my mom chose to focus this project on the community and coming together," Keane said. His nonbinary sibling created a "don't tread on me" square that reflects a more defiant energy. "That's the energy I feel much more."

Marie Garcelon, another of Lora's children, said that she grew up doing art with her mom but they'd never collaborated on a piece.

"It felt nice to be able to contribute some of my own art to it," said Marie, an Ann Arbor resident. "My siblings are both LGBTQ and I felt it could show my support."

Marie's piece depicts a large German Shepherd. "I wrote [on it], 'We must bark for those who must wear a muzzle,'" Marie said. "Instead of an angry, aggressive dog, it was a voice standing up for those who can't — like protecting your puppies."

A class from Howell High School contributed squares, as have professional artists from Oregon, Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, New Mexico, Wisconsin and California.

Marie said she was especially moved by the squares contributed from Howell High School, where she graduated more than a decade ago. The school's evolving culture represents broader changes in community acceptance.

"It was such a taboo thing for anyone to come out as gay," Marie said of her alma mater. "To see that outpouring of love and the fact that students were comfortable contributing made me really happy."

Liz Walker, a Portland, Oregon artist, contributed several pieces. Like Lora, Walker found catharsis using her art to express support and hope.

"After the election, we were all pretty gutted," Walker said. "[Lora] came up with a write-up that was the Together Art Project and sent it to me."

Walker sent emails to her like-minded artist colleagues. They responded and the representation in the project from the West grew.

"[The project] resonates with me because I have a beating heart," Walker said. "How could I not? This is an injustice; we have to get the word out."

Walker knows what it is like to be an ally. Her mother was a Texas school teacher who came out in 1977 when Walker was 19, launching her family into activism.

"She had to be pretty closeted," Walker said. "Now she's retired, 92, and married to her partner, Mary. We all realize these things can be taken away in a heartbeat."

One of the people Lora invited to participate was Brett Rogers, the director of marketing at Cleary University in Howell.

"She was telling me about the concept and I fell in love with it," Rogers said. "She shared the squares with us, which we shared with some of our students, staff and faculty. It's just amazing the quality of the art that has come in and how they all interweave with each other to make this impressive, beautiful piece that really does take a moment of anger and translates it into something productive."

The project debuted at Cleary University where it was on display for several weeks earlier this year.

"It truly is a therapeutic piece," Rogers said. "It takes time to look at it and that causes you to pause and reflect on what is happening currently in our political environment and how there can still be a sense of community and healing with those who are like-minded and trying to create a better world."

In March, two panels of the exhibition moved to Michigan State University and were being displayed on the first floor of the Student Services Building, hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Center. After it left MSU on April 17, it headed to Detroit for a few days as part of a fundraiser for the Ruth Ellis Center and then to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brighton.

"This gives me a focus to channel my angst, my anxiety," Lora said. "My oldest child is gay and my youngest child is trans. I've got a lot of fears for the future, especially my youngest who is going to be a teacher — there are concerns for a transgender person as a teacher right now in the state of Michigan."

She hopes the Together Art Project will help people know they are not alone and give them a sense of community.

"If there is anything that can help people feel less despair, to know that there are people out there who are fighting for them and who actually care — that's my goal," she said.