PAINTINGS

I have a few talents.  In order to prevent the accusation of being a bragger, I must first analyze and explain the word to you.  According to Mr. Webster, talent is "a special natural ability."  He also describes the meaning of natural as "the inherent ability of a person in a certain area."  In other words, I was born with certain abilities to do something special.  I am going to expose today one of these talents of which I am very proud. 

I learned the first lessons in painting when I was a child from my father, who used to draw with pencils and was good at it.  But it was the Almighty who bestowed this talent on me, and for that I thank him every day.

My very first serious attempt at this art happened when I was about 18 years old.  I drew a charcoal portrait of my 92 year old grandfather, with all his deep wrinkles, and exposed it at the local annual Community Fair.  The following day, everybody in my small town was congratulating him for the fine piece of art and myself for the realistic composition.  When I learned to paint with oils, my favorite medium, I created the same portrait, this time in color.

It was in the year 1960, when I moved to Miami, that I started to experiment with oil.  One of my first jobs was in a dog trimming salon and a beautiful gray poodle was my first model.  I regret so much loosing that painting.

Then I moved to New Jersey and the first year there I visited the Greenwhich Village Art Show, in New York city, which attracted over 800 artists from all over the world to this important outdoor exhibit, which was opened for two weekends in the Spring and in the Fall.  I brought my first paintings the following year and, although I was designated to a far away corner, I managed to sell four paintings.

I noticed that eighty percent of the artists there concentrated on landscapes and still lifes, so I created a "different" style, sort of impressionistic-surrealistic type of paintings.  The next exhibit I almost sold out.  I realized that I had to do something so this wouldn't happen again.  I converted one of my rooms into a permanent studio and worked almost every night to be ready for the next show.  I worked hard and very long hours and, when the time came, I was ready.  I only created six or eight paintings...but about ten of each. The attractive, colorful paintings sold like hot potatoes.  It was really mass production and, you might say, the prostitution of the art for the sake of the pocket.  It wasn't really art, it was a business. But I was poor then and I needed the money. After nine years of doing it (and finally hating it) I moved to Texas and didn't paint for ten years.

I was wondering one day if I still had the ability, so I painted a close-up of a flower from one of my color slides.  "Now I can paint whatever I like," I thought, "and I don't care if it sells or not."  At last I wasn't so desperate for money.

I have created, in the last twenty years, dozens of art pieces based on the hundreds of transparencies that I have taken, and I'm very proud of my work.