About Altar / Altered

Alex Behr was inspired to create this project by her son, Yu Zheng, later Eli Zheng Behr Hall, born in the foggy river city of Chongqing, China, in 2004. Eli was adopted in 2005, at 10 months old. His self-identity has shifted over time, yet he keeps tangible links, “sacred objects,” to his heritage on a skateboard shelf, a private altar. 

This website project does not center the adoptive parent over others, though Alex, an adoptive mother, cannot escape her biases and life experiences. 

Each person received their painted portrait, by Christine Shields, as a gift. 

Team

Nov. 3, 2022. CA Dept. of Social Services’ National Adoption Month celebration. Christine (left); Alex (right). Photo by Marty Behr.

Christine Shields

Christine Shields is an artist and musician from Northern California. At the age of 17 she moved to San Francisco, attended the Art Institute, and played in her first band as a drummer. Christine has created portraits for the Voice of Witness book series and Maggot Brain music/culture magazine, among many others. Her portraits have appeared in museums and galleries such as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and White Columns in New York. Her creative life, built around necessity and imagination, has taken many forms including painting, comics, music and illustration. She lives in Sacramento. www.christineshields.net.

Alex Behr

Alex Behr is the creator of this project. She’s a writer/editor and musician in Portland, OR. The author of Planet Grim: Stories (7.13 Books), her writing has appeared in Tin House, Salon, Oregon Humanities, National Geographic School Division, Oregon ArtsWatch, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and Gravity of the Thing, among many others. She teaches creative writing residencies in Portland for teens and adults. In the 1990s she played bass and keyboard in San Francisco bands and wrote for obscure fanzines. In this fertile time, she was lucky to meet Christine. www.alexbehr.com @Alex_Behr

Thanks

Alex is grateful to the Regional Arts & Culture Council, whose Make-Build-Learn grant helped to create this website and supported the commissioned artwork by Christine Shields. 

Thanks to Christine, whose humor, talent, and patience greatly helped Alex. The project would not exist without her.

Thanks to Laurel Cima, Heather Yetter, Heather Moore, and Christina Coloyan for their tireless work in foster care and adoption in the personal and professional realms and their enthusiasm toward this project.  

Thanks to Chas Nielsen for taking Alex’s makeshift recording and cleaning up audio file excerpts for the site.

Thanks to Stephen Blanquie of Folk Life Creative, for his helping Alex to clarify ideas, website design, and Squarespace wrangling.

Thanks to Miles Nation for his thorough website edits.

Thanks to Amanda Gersh for her home page copywriting ideas.

Thanks to Jen Stady for her logo and years of mothering help, humor, and friendship.

Thanks to Sandy Walcott and Marty (Nomi) and Peter (Ohweoh) Behr for their constant love and donations.

Much gratitude to Elowyn Collins, Gloria Harrison, Lincoln Kwan Miller, William Smith, and Nick Stady for sharing candid, sometimes painful personal stories through the lens of sacred objects.

And, as always, love to Eli Zheng Behr Hall.

BEFORE YOU GO…

Donating will help keep and expand the project. Funds will further help to reimburse the artist for her time and effort creating the portraits. 5% of every $100 will go toward nonprofits that provide resources for all members of the adoptive community.