Stanley Coll Haddock, was asked to draw rain when he was a child in school in Puerto Rico. Most kids drew the drops falling vertical, his rain was diagonal. She fell in love with him. She encouraged his art work and that motivated him in school. He constantly drew in school. All his note books were filled with drawings.
Stanley went to the University of Plastic Arts in San Juan Puerto Rico. After University he got married right away and painting was put on hold. He worked in commercial art for about 17 years. He became an illustrator. He worked with airbrush. He painted on the side any time he had spare time. He was discovering what he wanted to do in his own art.
After he left the commercial art job he worked at a newspaper in Puerto Rico. That helped him transition towards the art naive. The art for the newspaper was produced at a more personal level.
Stanley went to dinner with his brother after dinner they walked by an art gallery, which had a piece of art he had created. He was shocked to see it there. This gallery had a lot of naive art. The gallery owner encouraged him to continue with his naive art.
Naive artist have little knowledge of contrast, light, shadows, they instead draw from the interior and produce what they see. He became creating art naive full time in his early 40s in 1997. The art came from his soul, his own self. It was what he trusted the most. Naive can be the most natural form of expression. There are no limits in form, color or perspective. In Puerto Rico there was a certain pressure to express yourself in a certain way.
The artist moved to Florida to be close to an ailing family member. Everyone knew him as an art naive painter in Puerto Rico. The move to Florida also made his artwork change. He was copying his own self. He needed to change. Expression comes from change. He is satirical he expresses culture in a funny way and it is not far from reality. People relate to the situations. The work comes organically. Artists should be free to express themselves. Art can be subject to the change in mood every day. He transforms every day. There are no rules when creating naive art. He is free to express himself as he chooses.
His work often reflects the Urban Street scene. There are little details in day to day events which inspire him. There is no limit. People have hair rollers, beer cans or walk around barefoot. It reflects the day to day.
Two days after this interview, WHO declared COVID-19 a world wide pandemic and my own work underwent a drastic change.
Don Price was the sexton at Greenwood Cemetery at the time of the Pulse Nightclub massacre. He got a call from the mayors office the weekend of the shooting. He had been out at the beach watching a Space X launch. He returned to met with the mayors office. The mayor wanted to know if Greenwood could handle the 50 burials. The mayor also wanted to see the area of the cemetery that could accommodate the families on about Sunday afternoon. It was announced that the families would not have any cost of burial at Greenwood. People thought that meant the burials were free, but there were costs. Several anonymous law firms underwrote the burials paying families for the plots. 50 spaces were set aside. The section that was set aside had just opened up two months earlier, so it was easy to send the mayor photos and plot maps since it was just surveyed.
