MARY PELTZER “SPIRITS OF LOVED ONES”

At 45, Mary Peltzer, still a fan of Janis Joplin, wears a long-sleeved t-shirt with the late singer's picture. Her own gravelly voice is strikingly evocative of Joplin's; flamboyance, a wry humor and a past interrupted by drugs flesh out some of the similarities. Peltzer, however, got control of herself in a way Joplin never did.

Here she cradles “Spirits of Loved Ones,” a picture that she thanks Frampton for helping her finish. White doves appear suspended on the blue portion of the picture. On the circular edges, the color thins, allowing the canvas to emerge as the boundary.

Mary says this picture speaks to “blessings from God” and a hope for the time she will return to music. Because she was adopted, she knows little about her birth mother. But she does know that her mom was musical. Perhaps that explains Peltzer's talent, and her aspirations. It is unlikely that she will return to go-go dancing, or to the Greenwich Village bars where she played the guitar as an opening act.

What she really hopes is to reconnect with the producers who once showed an interest in her songs. That wish, and the belief that “someone's watching,” pervade her picture.

It has been a long day for Peltzer and the other artists who, one by one, have peeled off for the photo shoot for this story. Now it is 5:30, and Peltzer has removed her canvas to go upstairs for picture. It's also dinner time, time for residents to track through the lounge on their way to the dining hall. One woman in a wheel chair parks herself in front of the place where Peltzer's doves usually fly. But there is only a blank space.

“What happened to the picture?” the resident asks. “Where is the picture that's usually there?” She points to the emptiness on the wall. “I like to see these pictures here,” she says emphatically to no one in particular, lingering an instant before wheeling herself into the dining room.

The impact of this art show for the residents of Odyssey House, according to Arnold Unterbach, director of mental health services, compares to the collective joy and energy that explodes when a resident graduates, gets a job or finishes a GED. He describes it as “opening the windows and letting the fresh air in.” But this exhibit, he says, surpasses that. It is, Unterbach decides, like “all the windows opened at once.”

Phyllis Vine is a member of the National Alliance For the Mentally Ill and author of Families in Pain: Siblings, Spouses and Parents of the Mentally Ill Speak Out.