Grandpa's Visit to NY

Acrylics on paper 14"x17"

Grandpa’s visit to New York

One of my early works of art.

The first photo restoration project transformed into a painting. Who would’ve thought years later, I will provide this as one of my art services!

This is a portrait of my family members. Mainly my cousins and my grandfather. It was his first trip to New York City. I recall him saying I love my family, but I can’t stand New York! As a country boy born and reared in North Carolina, perhaps the city life was too much for him. I can understand why. I guess it was such a great difference between the concrete jungle and people cramped up in tall brick boxes verses the flat and open fields of seasonal crops, grass, trees and mostly one level homes in North Carolina. It also didn’t help that it was a time of multiple blackouts, burned tenements. (Arsons cause by landlords for insurance gains). I don’t mean to sound matter of fact, but this was how it was in the first years of my life. Fires! Blackouts! Fires! Blackouts!

Anyway, this portrait was based on a damage photo that I discovered in my grandmother’s house many years ago. I asked for her permission if I could take it with me back to New York and have it fixed.

 I was frustrated with the different reactions from various photo places in Manhattan. Didn’t want to touch it it was beyond damage. It was one of those old Polaroid photos of the cardboard mount. Then I decided to create a painting as part of the photo restoration.

This was a challenging assignment. I began with small sketches of my uncle and my cousin who is in which was extremely damaged to re-create construct their faces.

When the painting was finished, I gave the painting to my grandmother as a gift.

My grandfather in the middle surrounded by Uncle Norman “Barney”, cousins Kents, Norman, Kenneth “Keith”, Jeffery and the youngest child with a big smile is me!

I would love to re-create this restoration portrait when I have time. 

My skills have changed over the years and I’m curious to see how “we” will come out!

Stay tuned folks.........

Daddy's Little Girl

Acrylics on canvas board 11” x 14”

Daddy's little girl

Acrylics on canvas board 11” x 14”

Many years ago, my family found this photograph of my stepfather and his daughter. We thought it would be a great surprise to have the photo restored and to present it as a gift to her. I was so excited about this idea that I told her one day I have a surprise for you. My original idea was to try different photo restoration places, but it was either too expensive or they couldn’t piece the photo together because of the damage. It was equally expensive to attempt to do it on my own computer, so I kept the picture protected over the years. 

One day the thought hit me, try your own photo restoration through painting. It wouldn’t be the first time I thought. I did a painting a few years back of me surrounded by my cousins and my grandfather from a damaged photo. This project was a fun, but a tedious challenge!

The baby photo was so damaged that I had to re-create the structure of her face. I see why the photo restoration places didn’t want to deal with it. The lessons from anatomy class finally paid off! 

It was a wonderful picture of a celebration of Angie’s first birthday. Because it was a strong flash was used, most of the details disappeared. I was curious about what was on top of the cake. Using a magnifying glass I discovered that it was ballerina figurines dancing around. This was really precious and important to capture.

The portrait titled, “Daddy‘s little girl”, was presented at Grandpuba’s (my step father’s nickname) 70th birthday celebration. They were both surprised. It’s sparked memories  of a wonderful time and started a conversation about her first birthday celebration. The look of joy on their faces was priceless.

Portraits like this one, are special and unique. You’re basically getting a damaged photo, and restoring its original image into a painting. Memories are treasured through photos. I’m hoping that memories can be treasured through paintings. I can’t express how significant and valuable milestone memories are. But if it could be saved to a painting, that would be great.

Rafaela and Heriberto

11“ x 14“ acrylic on canvas board

Rafaela and Heriberto

A friend of mine asked me to paint a portrait of her mother and uncle. When she text me the picture, I asked her what year was this portrait painted. She seemed shocked that I knew  that it wasn’t a faded photo. 

She replied that it was sometime in the 1960s. It has been their first image together since their arrival to America from Santo Domingo. I also noticed a significant age difference between them. 

She seemed to be a serious yet a hip teenager aware of the latest trends, while her brother looks dissatisfied to be taking the picture. He has this typical adolescent, “I don’t want to sit here” look on his face. Which is very funny and I wanted to capture it in this portrait.

I don’t know much about them. But I can just imagine the stories they might have had. Can you imagine being a young yet serious teen girl or an elementary school age, rambunctious boy (don’t ask, I just see in his eyes....... HA! ). Moving from the Dominican Republic, called home for most of your short life to the United States of America, a new home and adjusting to a whole new culture, language, and environment. I am certain that their stories contain happy as well as painful memories.........

This project was very important to me because there’s a strong sense of family history in this image. I wanted to capture their essence, their strong sibling bond, hopefully to start or continue a conversation that usually goes from one generation to the next. This is why portraits, in general, are important. It's the connection from one generation to the next. It’s a start of a good dialogue. Portraits can also be a wonderful gift for the family. When the portrait was completed, my client/friend, loved it! I just hope her family enjoyed it as well.

* I would often stand in someone else shoes to gain an understanding of their perspective, regardless of their different race, culture, or religion.

We are living in a divisive climate now, which is filled with racially charged rhetoric! If we connect as humans, we will find out that we are more alike than different. Go figure! 

Study of Uncle Barney

Pencil 3"x5"

Study of Uncle Barney

What in the world was I thinking? The photo reference was 3”x 5” photo of my family. The photo was damaged. It was a photo of my grandfather’s first and only visit to NYC. It was only of the first photo restoration painting that I completed. My uncle was in the back. It was difficult to make out his features so a magnifying glass was used to make out his features. Thanks to the magnifying glass, I noticed that his eyes were closed. This study, helped painting process. It was extra work but it was worth it. (Note to self: never, never rely on a photo no smaller than 1/4” wide!!)