Early this year, around March or so, the Artist Danilo Peguero contacted me and asked if I had time to meet with him to discuss some ideas he had. I had met Danilo when he was part of a Residency program at Mana Contemporary in the summer of 2019 and I had written about him in my blog because I had been so impressed by not only his beautiful and skillful work, but also who he was as a person and and Artist. He works in many styles and is always exploring something new, and the new work that I saw of his when I met him as well as the work that is available to view online was impressive.
When I met with Danilo, we had a wonderful dinner together in a neighborhood where I had lived for a time when I was first born again and that I know well. Because of the experiences I have had there I am very fond of it, and the restaurant where we met was one that all those years ago I had always wanted to try but had not had the financial ability to do it. My life has changed in so many ways thanks to the wonderful ways that God has moved through it and worked his particular kind of miracles, and it was wonderful to meet Danilo in that old familiar neighborhood and to remember as I traveled there the years that had gone by and how many things had changed for the better.
Over dinner, Danilo said that he had several paintings that he had in New York that he wanted to find a place to show, and he also wanted to paint a portrait of me live so that people could see the different styles of his work. I often help Artists to find spaces and curate shows and promote their work, and because I admire Danilo I was more than happy to help him. It was also such a beautiful gesture and an honor that he wanted to paint my portrait, and so I told him that I'd think about the best place to try to arrange to have that done as well as see about where we might possibly find a space for a show.
At the time of our meeting and discussion I had already spoken with someone about a space for a possible gallery in Hoboken, but at that particular date I wasn't sure if anything would be happening with me and my ideas for that space. But then in a few months, after I'd started to reach out to other people for Danilo and after he had also asked a few people he knew, I was offered the opportunity to move forward with the space in Hoboken and create a gallery there. At first that space was being made available in June, but then over time things changed and the opening date of the gallery was moved to August. But from the first when I heard that I could move forward with planning a gallery in the space I contacted Danilo and asked if he would like to have a show of his work there and to paint my portrait as part of that show. He agreed, and we began to plan, and on August 23 as I've written about in these pages before, YES Gallery opened with a beautiful show that included many of Danilo's pieces. As I've written before, the article that was written at that time by the well respected and wonderfully talented journalist Tris McCall in NJArts was so gorgeous it felt like a dream, and Danilo and his work were given an excellent mention.
Originally Danilo and I had thought that we would do the live portrait painting for the opening of the gallery, but it seemed too much for us to do everything all at once and so we decided to schedule it for later. With my schedule and his and all the things going on in both of our lives, we finally set the date to September 29 and 30 and October 1, but then I heard from Chef Paul Gerard that he was available to be a part of another project that I've been writing about recently for the Food Systems Game Changers Lab, and that was the weekend when he was available. I contacted Danilo and we rescheduled for October 20, 21 and 22.
In its own wonderful way that date was the right date because that morning when my photographs gave me a reminder of a memory I saw that I'd begun to have a deeper understanding of why I work with Artists and feel so deeply that it's important to support and encourage and help them to keep creating and doing their beautiful work. The reminder had to do with my own mother and the way she lived her life always creating while never being recognized fully for the Artist that I now know she was. YES Gallery has so much about it that feels as if my mother is a part of it, and to have my portrait begun to be painted on that day in that gallery helped me know that something very special was happening, even more so than I had thought before.
The experience was such a lovely and special one, and this is only the beginning. Danilo worked with me for those first few days and then brought the painting back to his studio to work on it for an additional more than sixty hours. He'll be bringing it back this coming week in time to be unveiled and displayed for the next show. For now here are a few glimpses of the work that he did as we began this creative project together.
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