Richard Bartoletti is currently showing some off his most imaginative and colorful artwork at Portfolio Coffeehouse. Even though his collection will be taken off the walls at the end of its nearly two-month run at the end of February, don’t expect him to vanish.
Around Portfolio, Bartoletti is no stranger – everybody there calls him by his nickname, “Pappa.” His artwork, on the other hand, is not as straightforward.
A bulk of Bartoletti’s most recent series of portraits in gouache and egg tempera, which are prominently displayed in the main room of the coffeehouse, are filled with castles, fanciful gardens and mysterious creatures alike. Bartoletti said recently that these were inspired by a local group of feminists who turned him on to the ideas of witches.
It leaves one to wonder if those women in his paintings are real witches.
“Well, no, they’re on paper,” darted back the artist.
Bartoletti’s delicate rendition of witches is more in tune with nature.
“They’re medicine-healers. They’re into herbs and the elements of earth,” he said.
The Converse-wearing artist comes from the laid-back era of hippies, when getting around meant working at co-ops and living in teepees. He mentioned being inspired by touring the country and by such artists, like Yoko Ono, who famously chatted with Elliot Mintz over the airwaves.
Bartoletti is also a gifted hand-painted lettering artist. You can see his work on the buildings of the downtown restaurant, The Cellar.
