Outsider Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Outsider, a 40-minute award-winning documentary, addresses both the tragedy and redemption that can result from mental illness. This complex landscape becomes personal as we learn about painter Maury Ornest, whose life encompassed baseball, schizoaffective disorder, and art.

Maury Ornest (1960–2018) lived a life shaped by both triumph and struggle, always returning to creativity as a source of meaning. Born in Vancouver and raised in Los Angeles, Maury excelled on the baseball diamond, drafted 76th overall out of high school by Major League Baseball. After playing at University of California Santa Barbara, he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers organization and played in the minors until injuries ended his career. As he moved into adulthood, he began facing profound mental health challenges, including psychosis and paranoia, that changed the course of his life.

It was art that gave Maury another arena. Basically self-taught, he also took several extension classes at Otis College of Art, and UCLA. He filled sketchbooks and canvases with a profound body of work—paintings, alive with bold color, wit, and an inventive visual language shaped by his deep engagement with art history. Over the last three decades of his life, despite physical illness and isolation, Maury continued to create tirelessly, leaving behind a remarkable record of exploration and imagination. After his death, more than 1,400 paintings and 100 journals were discovered by his sister Laura.

Directed by Ted Haimes and produced by Ted Haimes and Nicole Lucas Haimes, Outsider won the Audience Award for best short at the Montclair Film Festival. Maury’s journals are narrated by Gary Gulman.

Following the screening, guests will be invited to stay for a panel featuring the following speakers:

Sarah Balascio is an instructor in Maine College of Art & Design's online Graduate Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy and a nationally certified art therapist and adjunct professor at University of Maine, Farmington. She lives in Yarmouth, Maine.

Mary Michola Fibich, MA, ATR, is a registered art therapist and professional artist and has worked in the art therapy field for over 35 years in trauma, psychiatric, addiction, hospice, educational, geriatric, medical and corporate settings. She lives in Maine with her husband and two sons.

Elly Lovin is a dancer, barre instructor, movement facilitator, Registered Dance Movement Therapist and an LCPC-c based in Portland, Maine.

Laura Ornest is a retired journalist, mental health advocate, Maury’s sister, and a member of the Advisory Board of UCLA Friends of Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She resides half the year in Woolwich, Maine.

Dr. Cynthia Sortwell is a Portland-based child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University and Maine Medical Center.

A selection of works by Maury Ornest will be on exhibit in the Congress Street windows at Maine College of Art & Design from September 17 through October 15 and will be available for purchase, with proceeds supporting the Graduate Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy program at Maine College of Art & Design.

To learn more about MECA&D's online Graduate Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy, visit our website here. This program is designed for individuals who seek to enhance their knowledge of using art to facilitate self-reflection and explore the transformative power of creativity through art making activities, meeting the needs of individuals from diverse backgrounds and within various contexts.

To make a direct donation, please visit meca.edu/donate and indicate that the gift is for the Expressive Arts Therapy program, or call 207-699-5015.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Osher Hall at Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, United States