Painting by Fred Bustinza Emerges

Having finally forced myself to sit down to update the blog and catch up on the local blog scene, I was pleased to see many more Brownsville-themed blogs on the internet. I will need to provide a list with links soon, but for now I was pleasantly surprised to see that the topic of art is not limited to this blog.

What I happened to come upon was on a post on the blog "Blogging All Things Brownsville" about a painting by local and deceased artist Fred Bustinza. The news of his death was a shocking blow to those who knew and loved him and to our community and the original August 25th, 2005 Art of Brownsville post has been turned in a memorial of sorts where his friends and family leave comments from time to time.

The above painting (photograph by Melissa Zamora of "Blogging All Things Brownsville") is characteristic of Bustinza's abstract expressionist style and is signed and dated by the artist in 2004. While the post goes on to another post with speculations on the motivations behind his death, I was really fascinated to see more art by this artist whom unfortunately we lost and whom local artists may have been able to learn much from because of his experience in the field as a successful professional.

I never met Fred Bustinza and do not wish to disrespect his memory, family and friends by bringing up the topic of his death. More, my intention is to share more of his art, so that we can honor is life by appreciating his art, basically the legacy any artist leaves behind. I know a mural by him is at the local Good Neighbor Settlement House so please, if anyone has more pictures of his art please send them to artofbrownsville@gmail.com and I will glady post them. Thank you.