"Ellis Island Gypsy Madonna," among the works by artist Sandra Nardone on display at the General Assembly Building downtown through Feb. 17 (Image courtesy Sandra Nardone)
After happening upon photos online that were taken at Ellis Island in the early 1900s, Prince George County artist Sandra Nardone felt drawn to the immigrants in the pictures; she decided to paint them.
She gave the photos new life through her paintings, which are now on display in the General Assembly Building downtown until Feb. 17. Sardone’s portraits grace the building in its last days; it is now hosting its last session and will be demolished later this year to make way for a new complex, planned to be built by 2021 in an extensive project involving several buildings, a new parking deck and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nardone typically paints landscapes and florals, but was captivated by the immigrants’ faces. Her husband’s family immigrated to America from Italy, and she felt a connection with Italian heritage. Her portrait series began with a young Italian girl with red hair. “You can feel their emotions in the photos,” she says.
The project, which encompasses 24 portraits in total, inspired Nardone to start painting more than she ever had before. During the summer, she completed 14 pieces, often working on three portraits at at time. Some didn’t take long at all, while others took months to paint. The use of oil paints allowed for her to continually revise what she didn’t like. Often, she spent so much time with the paintings that she started to feel like she knew the people.
After having her art displayed at the General Assembly several years ago, Nardone reached out again and found that an entire room of the building would be dedicated to all 24 of her portraits. Though the portraits differ slightly from the photographs that inspired them, each one has its photo displayed next to it.
The paintings are of immigrants of different descents, but Nardone says that there’s one common theme throughout all of them: a focus on family. “Some had money, some were poor, but they all ended up at the same place with the same hopes and dreams of a better life,” she said.
“We’re all immigrants,” Nardone says. “I don’t understand people who say that [immigrants] don’t belong here.”
Over the course of her work on the series, a sense of purpose fueled her artistry. “I guess I felt that this was a project that I was meant to do,” she says.
“Ellis Island Immigrants: Faces of America” will be on display at the General Assembly building downtown (201 N. 9th St.) until Feb. 17.
