ART CRITICS REACH A VERDICT
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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Self-confidence is one thing,
but a 2,275 square-foot mural is another...
His artistry comes in at his level of ideas.
• Karen Sandstrom •
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The result is a tour-de-force. A masterpiece!
It's probably safe to say that no one has tried or thought to achieve the sheer, rather maniacal Renaissance splendor...
There's definitely nothing like it this side of Firenze.
• Douglas Max Utter •
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Vermont College of Norwich University
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John writes beautifully, with clarity,
elegance and passion, and he grounds his
claims in careful thinking.
• Janet Kaplan, Executive Editor of Art Journal •
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Sunday Magazine
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Nancy Lewis drinks her morning coffee beside a blooming Tuscan garden. In the evening, she relaxes nest to the calming waters of the Mediterranean. And she never has to leave her Lakewood high-rise building. Wall murals create the illusion of Italian splendor.
The co-founder of Panorama, a Lakewood travel agency specializing in European and Asian destinations, Lewis didn't have time with her busy work schedule to decorate her home. She hired John Rivera-Resto. They traveled to Europe together and drank in the colors of lush Italian gardens and centuries-old villas.
While in a café in Avignon, France, Rivera-Resto grabbed a napkin and began sketching a vista similar to the one they had seen in the Valley of Lombardy in Italy: A rainbow of flowers surrounded a terra-cotta-tiled balcony tinged with gold, much like the colors found in aged Italian palazzos. Cypress trees, wheat fields and a lily pond stretched into the distance. Lewis loved the sketch and asked Rivera-Resto to recreate his drawing on her walls. The results were magic.
The ability to experience the beauty and history of other countries is one of the great perks of her job. And coming home to Italy, Lewis says, is the next best thing to being there.
• Diane Dipiero •
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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He is willing to endure pain for the sake of art.
No one questions the value of his work.
• Olivera Perkins •
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John Rivera-Resto does not walk into a room. He enters it. With a leonine mane of flowing dark hair framing chiselled looks, his gaze captures you completely as he strides with feline grace across the room in long measured stride.
Heads turn, men take notice; women unconsciously become preoccupied with combing loose strands of hair on seemingly perfect coiffeurs. Hearts flutter a little faster. But he is oblivious to it all.
Rock stars and Hollywood celebrities have that effect on people. But John Rivera-Resto is not one of them. He is an artist; a great artist. He is also one of the most talented and enigmatic people I have ever met, with a fertile mind capable of sucking knowledge from a sponge.
• Danila Ampié-Sims •
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He is the most un-Puerto Rican artist I know. He can't dance Salsa, he grew up in an island but can't swim, and instead of tanning, his skin sunburns.
But he can paint.
• Francisco Molina •
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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John Rivera-Resto, a Cleveland native who grew up in Puerto Rico, almost steals the show...
His dedication is admirable.
• Steven Litt, Art Critic •
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I don't know what the fuss is all about.
He is not an artist.
The man can't paint.
• Maria Espendez De Rivera •
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He strikes one as a modern day Michelangelo at work.
• Ken Krych •
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The Scene -Arts & Entertainment
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One look at John Rivera-Resto's mural of outraged deer consorting with mike-wielding reporters, while deranged elves jig with malicious glee and haranguing lawyers gather at the North Pole, lets us know that the sugar is off the plum and the berry is off the holly!
• Keith A. Joseph •
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He is recognized as one of the best.
• Rick Haase •
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His art transcends the image to become part of the public's consciousness.
• Athena Vidalis •
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