ArrayParity: Restyling mental illness through the self-emblematic, an apparel campaign for equal treatment.

Read the ArrayParity Mission.

January 18, 2021

An early film still as we get started on a poetry/video leg of our project with poet Daniel Walter. We're using a green screen to begin our experiments.


Update, November 3rd, 2019

Our satisfaction is unbearable with our new promotional video featuring artist and veteran Scott Tomkinson from Kim's Military Artistic Healing Program held weekly at The Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, and a staple of her Creative Expressions art therapy program at Aspen Pointe. Much thanks to AngoTango Pictures.


ArrayParity Promotional Video from Max Maddox on Vimeo.


We're honored to share with you this candid and in-depth interview with Scott. Scott describes how art has become his most important therapeutic device in alleviating trauma associated with PTSD. He served in Haiti and the Philippines.



Update, October 26th, 2019


Today Gonzo and I spent the afternoon at Sox Place youth shelter for an ArrayParity workshop. We showed up with some PC's, a backpack full of sketchbooks, and a few dozen markers hoping to get some of the kids interested in the project and hoping to get a few new recruits to the Reach program.

In case you haven't heard, update from the streets: our youth are regularly incarcerated and left homeless in the near absence of mental health and drug addiction care in our communities. Art was the topic, but it was easily intertwined for the Sox Place kids with mental illness, addiction, incarceration, and an overall picture of life that often borders on near death. This afternoon, a typical Saturday, prostitution was arranged for drugs merely feet from our worktable. The mood was cold as ice, as it always is where homeless kids brush up against each other for pasta, laundry, a few hours of internet and momentary safety from the streets. Dog-friendly, it never hurts to bring your Pit to Sox just in case.


While our purpose is deepened here, the very idea of mental health and youth advocacy is severely challenged by settings like this. We want to inspire these individuals in crisis through art, but the needs of these kids are even more basic. Owners Jordan and Doyle Robertson are on the frontline of a disaster in our society and I have to say it is heartwrenching.


That being said, we were able to reach out to about a dozen new artists today and get them on our email list while 8 design sketches made it into the bag. I sat next to Martin Zeaden, who lives with bipolar disorder and is getting the usual regimen of antipsychotics and mood-stabilizers typical of someone "just out of County." Zeaden worked in a sketchbook for a steady two hours while complaining of his short attention span. "Art is the only therapy that works," he told me nearing satisfaction with his design. "It's like when I do art nothing else matters."


Daniel tripped out on my Ipad for the entire afternoon while digressing into a familiar story he related to his design, a virtual map that looped in the Olive Garden and a lost treasure of millions in the Highlands. I smiled that, "Really?" smile that was typical of someone hearing my own psychotic word mazes years ago. I found myself again in front of a strange mirror I could be sitting on either side of.


Even Gonzo, who was himself homeless for 20 years, was a little on edge in this landscape, but he dropped his business card wherever he could and made an earnest attempt to show Windows 7 to Generation Z.

Gonzo is no stranger to mental illness and the Redline Art Center grapples with the challenges of hosting sometimes unstable artists off the street every Tuesday and Saturday afternoon. Reach offers a more hopeful setting, where not only the staff but especially the "Core" Reach veterans offer guidance and friendship to newcomers. But a fragile but very real bond unites the Sox Place kids and they make that completely apparent with a dry urgency that is absolutely status quo here.


We'll be sharing more about Sox Place over the coming months, because well hey, they are also some of the best screen printers in town. Our next design is on the racks as master tech Trent McMillan sorts out the kinks in what can only be called what it is, a half-tone vector file.



From here it's off to the screens, the penultimate of this strange but necessary institution that began with a van full of socks and two determined men.




Update, October 23rd, 2019.

The students at Kim's Military Artistic Healing Program at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs simply do not hesitate when diving into a collaboration. This is the first of three collaborative designs from this group, who show up weekly to learn a thing or two from art therapist Kim Nguyen. Simply said, AWEsome. Our jaws dropped when Kim did a flash demo on landscaping.


Go Vets.

Update, September 25, 2019

We need your vote! Help us sort out our next design to be printed at Sox Place by voting on instagram.


Laurel Rankin busted out the reading material to come up with this ingenious design centered around Carl Jung's idea of "Synchronicity." Laurel's kit includes a superhero cape with her Ab-Ex design plastered across the back, a unique handmade necklace, a pair of reading glasses, and Jung's last work, Man and his Symbols.



Bo Murphy likes to lounge when she's feeling down, and with this tote it looks like we're headed to the beach! Her tote features her outsider design "On the Fringe," complete with a set of 24 marker pens, a customized journal, and a soft beach towel. Oh, and don't forget the shades.


Linda Fincher doesn't mess around when she's on the road. Her backpack features her "Stand for Mental Health" design and includes a professional 36 watercolor set with 3 travel brushes and a custom steel water bottle. We could barely keep our hands off this long enough for the picture!


Update, September 22, 2019

We have a new addition to the ArrayParity team! Brian Reed is an artist in Kim's veterans class at Bemis in Colorado Springs, and needless to say, we were impressed. Brian is not only an incredible fauve painter, he blew our tops off with his motorized wagons. He calls his outfit "Heartless Customs" and we'll be sharing a lot more from Brian as we work with him to create three designs this winter.




Update, September 02, 2019

We tallied our votes for Scott's sweatshirt designs and we have a winner! Thanks to the NAMI community for helping us settle on his "Unalienable" design. We're in que at Sox Place and we'll let you know when these are available.



Update, August 8, 2019

Ready to go for the August 10th opening at the Redline for the Arts and Society granting program! Incredible job artists! We're super excited to have all these designs in one place and looking stellar for our second public appearance. Artists: Scott Tomkinson, Laurel Rankin, Linda Fincher, Bo Murphy, and Gonzo.




Update, June 19, 2019

The ArrayParity team recruited veteran artist Scott Tomkinson last April to create our third design, and boy, are we glad we chose Scott! In short order, Scott came to "the bell tower" at Grant Avenue Community Center in Denver to complete his designs on the spot. Some artists work best under the gun, and this proved true with Scott, who managed to create five paintings on a Friday afternoon while in front of two cameras.


Emmy nominated Anthony Ngo with Ango Tango Films was in attendance! Anthony, who will be taking shots of our progress this summer, recorded a my candid interview with Scott about his experience as a veteran living with PTSD. We'll be posting clips this summer.

Here are Scott's working designs:


What do we want? JUST TREATMENT. Those living with these life-threatening illness deserve all the resources of modern medicine. But so do we deserve art, which is for many of us the kindling for our recovery. We’ll be testing this gorgeous design on a navy blue hoodie this July.


We are CEASELESS in the pursuit of humane recoveries for those living with mental illness.


MLK said it best. UNALIENABLE.

Amazing job Scott — you've broken epic ground with these smart designs. Register your vote for your favorite design by giving it a like on Instagram.


Update, June 15, 2019

The ArrayParity team has been hard at work, and we are stoked to share our new design candidates! After working with Kim’s Creative Expressions art therapy class to develop designs on totes, paper plates and canvases, we held a juried competition to select three finalists for our second design.

Announcing our finalists:
Bo Murphy



Bo will be working with the team to test this beautiful outsider design on black totes. Many of us have found a place ON THE FRINGE, some of us actually enjoy it! Yet, we seek community through art, and that is the crux of the Creative Expressions program.

Laurel Rankin


We all remember Carl Jung, right? Alluding to the meaningful coincidences of mind and nature, Laurel will try her SYNCHRONICITY design on "cute hoodies" and cotton ponchos.

Liinda Fincher


Seems pretty self explanatory to me. STAND FOR MENTAL HEALTH! Linda is working out the details of printing this blast of color on custom backpacks and we'll see what this one look like on some long-sleeved shirts. Let us know what you think should be inside the survival kit.

Hats off to Creative Expressions for all their beautiful work, and to our digital specialist Michael McComb for making these designs look stellar.

Next, we will be putting these artists’ ideas onto real things! The test prints will be put into competition for our next mass printing at Sox Place. Follow our progress on Instagram to cast your vote on the best design!




ArrayParity: Restyling mental illness through the self-emblematic, an apparel campaign for equal treatment.

Purpose: To bring voice to those who struggle with mental illness through collaboratively designed imagery, logos, and aphorisms for print on apparel to disrupt negative perceptions of mental illness.

NAMI Colorado Springs, in association with Sox Place Youth Shelter and Aspen Pointe Behavioral Health, are starting an initiative to re­style perceptions of mental illness at writ. We are proud recipients of the Arts In Society grant and are excited to implement this exciting art project over the next year.


Our first ArrayParity design by Gonzo was printed by Sox Place last Spring.

We are teaming up those suffering from mental illness in a collaborative effort to develop imagery, logos, and aphorisms for mass screen printing. “Array” refers to the apparel, totes, and stickers that bear our designs, and “Parity” to our efforts for equal rights and healthcare for the mentally ill. We aim to root mental health parity in an effort to overcome the stigma surrounding mental illness using the creative talents of the mental health community to reach the general public. Our attitude is poised by self­ representation.

We intend to:
1) Communicate solidarity before discrimination.

2) Disseminate the voices of those who live with mental illness.
3) Challenge stigma with the compass of image and epigraph.



Looking fabulous at the 2018 NAMI Colorado Walk. We incentivized donations with these great sweatshirts.

Look out for our next design, featuring the artists from the Creative Expressions Program. Donate $100 to our project and be the first to receive an original hooded sweatshirt. See details and keep abreast of our progress on the ArrayParity blog.


The ArrayParity team:

Max Maddox, project lead and developer. Max Maddox is a Denver artist and arts facilitator working in Denver. He is co-author of Walks on the Margins, A story of Bipolar Illness. Find out more about Max and see his art at www.maxmadox.net, or follow him on instagram.

Kim Nguyen, Aspen Pointe Behavioral Health, curator; development consultant. Kim is a one of a kind art therapist working with Aspen Pointe Behavioral Health and Colorado College to run 3 art therapy groups in Colorado Springs for peers living with mental illness and veterans. Find out more about Kim here.

Michael McComb, digital designer. Michael is a young graphic designer and recent graduate of MSU in Graphic Design. He survived the Aurora shooting in 2012, and he brings a unique perspective to our project.

Gonzo, design leader. Gonzo prefers to live without labels. He survived twenty years of homelessness, and uses art as his principle therapy. Find out more about Gonzo and the Reach program.

Trent McMillan, Sox Place master screen printer. Find out more about Sox Place, a unique screen printing facility and youth homeless shelter in Denver.

Volunteer to help us today! Email maxmaddoxart@gmail.com.

Watch this short video introduction to our project, produced by Redline Art Center.

Array Parity - NAMI Colorado Springs from Arts in Society on Vimeo.