Artist
Spotlight

Born in Havana, Cuba into an artistic family, Ed’s father was a photographer, aunt an actress, and uncle a musician. During Ed’s childhood, his mother would oil paint sepia photos his father developed in his darkroom. This was a profitable business since color photos were almost impossible to find those years in Cuba. Ed would study her painting photos for hours and was soon sketching all the time, asking his mom to draw things so he could copy them. His first bonafide art lesson was with an uncle who showed him how to draw a simple cartoon rabbit. To this day Ed can still remember that lesson and believes that was his first real inspiration to make art. When his parents and brother came to the U.S. in 1980, they settled in Los Angeles to be closer to family. His first day in school was very confusing and scary until the time came for art class. All the fears, communication, and cultural barriers subsided and I lost myself in creating. The time in California was short-lived and his family moved to Orlando. Florida’s education was ahead of its time in eliminating Arts Education and art was disappearing from Ed’s life. One thing that did stay with him was sketching and scribbling on notebooks. Throughout his educational years, Ed has experienced art, which laid the foundation for his life-long love. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2003 with a B.S. in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations. Ed now resides in Acworth, Georgia, and chalks at Chalktoberfest with his daughter Penelope. He enjoys family dinners, Gator football, cooking, music, golf, motorcycles, fishing, and free diving. Ed is also a blacksmith and focuses primarily on knife making and restoration.