My wife and I did not want to raise or son in the city, so we moved here from the Bay Area in November of 1972.  Oroville provided me and my wife Patsy with jobs and gave us a good place to raise our son Matthew.  I worked for RCBS for thirty-three years and Patsy worked for Oroville Hospital for twenty-five.  We are both retired now and are planning to live the rest of our lives here in the Oroville area. 

I am grateful to Oroville and its residents for taking me and my family in and giving us an opportunity to grow.  To express my gratitude, I have started a series of portraits of the "Faces of Oroville".  When completed, I hope the portraits will show how remarkable the people that live here in our community are.

Oroville has a diverse population and in "Faces of Oroville" I hope to capture this diversity.  The people selected for portraits will come from all segments of our community.  There will be doctors and lawyers, teachers, firemen, police officers, business men and workers.  One thing they will all have in common is that they are contributing members of our community with interesting faces and equally as interesting personalities.

When completed, I would like "Faces of Oroville" to belong to it's citizens.  I hope to find a permanent location that is open to the public to display the portraits.  Our children and visitors to our community can look at the portraits and see who we are.  And in doing so may  share the pride we have in our community, and in each other. 

Each portrait will be 24 inches wide by 30 inches tall, and will be painted with acrylics on canvas .  It will take me approximately 1 month to paint each portrait at a cost of approximately $350.00.

Sponsors and Contributions

People or organizations wishing to contribute to this project or to sponsor a portrait may do so by contacting Kenneth Kelsoe by phone at (530) 589-0172 or by email at kenkelsoe@digitalpath.net.  If you wish to see more of my portraits, most of my work is on my website http//:kennethkelsoe.com.

           Jim Moll                      Claudia Knaus

        David Bruce                   Fred Huntington