The Artist
Gabriel Fernández is a Nuyorican artist who was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico and grew up in the Bronx. Gabriel is proof positive of the power of art to heal souls, as he stopped speaking as a four-year-old after he was taken from his family and placed in a Catholic home when his mother was a victim of domestic violence.
During his time in the home, there was no such thing as bi-lingual education. Gabriel lost his language when the nuns
beat him with a ruler anytime they heard him speaking Spanish.
As a result of all of this trauma, Gabriel withdrew from the chaos. He was rescued from a life of oblivion when he met Edith Kramer. A pioneering art therapist, Edith helped him overcome his isolation by showing him how to use his creativity to express his feelings.
Gabriel used his artistic skills to re-acclimatize to the outside world. When he was in grade school, he would sell drawing of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman on loose-leaf paper for a nickel so he could buy baseball cards.
After graduating from the High School of Art & Design in New York City, Gabriel left the Catholic youth home system to attend Worcester State College in Massachusetts. There he painted, played baseball, and football, and majored in partying before dropping out and joining the Navy.
While serving in the Navy, Gabriel visited 15 different countries, along with living in Japan and the Philippines. During his 20 years sailing in the Pacific, he carried his sketch pad with him at all times, recording his impressions of the people, sights, and cultures he experienced.
After retiring from the military, Gabriel settled in San Diego, California. There he worked as an employment specialist for various non-profit social services agencies, and helped over 1,000 people find jobs. Gabriel continued to create art at night and weekends, while exhibiting at local galleries, and earning a Bachelors’ Degree in Painting and Printmaking from San Diego State University.
Gabriel now lives in Duluth, Georgia, with his wife Sharon, who was his classmate in high school. He recently retired from working as a homeless Veterans’ housing advocate. He is now a full-time artist where he uses his love of hiking to paint emotional landscapes inspired by the late 1700’s – mid 1800’s Romantic period, and his love of reading to create internal dreamscapes inspired by mythology, psychology, existentialism and magical realism.