In the Name of the Father
by Jill Duff-Hoppes
Artist Alberto Rivas of Altamonte Springs is determined to leave behind a creative legacy for his family and others to appreciate. However, it’s not his own artwork Alberto is trying to preserve, but rather a lifetime of work by his late father, Francisco Rivas.
Francisco was a respected architect in his home country of Mexico, practicing there from the late 1940s to the early 1980s when he moved to Bradenton, Florida, to be near family. Francisco was employed by major architectural firms and even worked on a project for renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and on another for Mario Pani Darqui, a well-known Mexican architect.
“My dad was a gifted man and a true master,” says the 66-year-old Alberto. “He just had to be drawing all the time. He actually died while drawing [in 2003 at age 84]. That was his comfort zone, always.”
Francisco’s preferred artistic mediums were pencil, colored pencil, and pen and ink, which he utilized to create highly detailed drawings that look as if he’d been classically trained. That wasn’t the case, however. Francisco’s parents couldn’t afford to send him to art school, so he taught himself the same techniques used by great masters of the past. Later in life, he was trained as an architect and worked on residential and hotel projects in the tourist districts of Mexico, including Cancun, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.
Echoes of the Past
This fall, Francisco’s fine-art drawings were exhibited publicly for the first time in an exhibit titled Artistic Echoes, which was on display for a month in Orlando. The exhibit was curated by Central Florida artist Patrick Noze, a native of Haiti. For Artistic Echoes, Patrick assembled an impressive array of work created by local and international artists, including 18 original pieces by Francisco. Patrick also wanted to include some of Alberto’s paintings, but Alberto insisted that only his dad’s drawings should be shown.
“Alberto unselfishly wanted to honor the work of his father in a heartfelt tribute,” says Patrick. “He wanted to bring honor to his father’s work, which up until now never had the respect that it deserved.”
Born and raised in Mexico City, Alberto is an artist in his own right. He came to the United States to study at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, majoring in design and fine arts. He was also trained in Italy in the art of Venetian plaster. Alberto created many decorative murals for private homes in the Windermere area and worked on murals for commercial clients such as Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. These days, he is semi-retired and enjoys hand-painting old furniture, turning the discarded pieces into beautifully functional works of art.
For Alberto, the Artistic Echoes exhibit was the first step in what he calls the Rivas Legacy project, designed to bring recognition to his father’s fine art and contributions to Mexican mid-century architecture and design. Next, he hopes to showcase Francisco’s fine-art drawings at galleries in Orlando. He is also archiving Francisco’s decades-worth of architectural illustrations, which are stored at Alberto’s home. The drawings are all the more impressive because they were rendered by hand, before the advent of computer-assisted art. Ultimately, Alberto hopes to exhibit them in Mexico, perhaps at architect and design schools.
Francisco might not have approved of all these plans, but that isn’t deterring his son.
“My dad was very humble. He hated anything that brought attention to him,” says Alberto, who nevertheless believes his father’s work deserves to be seen by a wider audience. “He had amazing talent and was a true artist.”