Francisco Jose Salas, the eldest child of seven, arrived in the USA in 1959. He and his family became refugees following the revolution in their native Cuba. Young Francisco’s first impression of the United States was influenced by the snow on the ground and the cold temperature. Something this six year old boy from Cuba never saw before. His father was an engineer and founded and ran his own successful bridge and road building firm. This career was continued by the elder Salas upon his arrival in the USA. Still very close to his mother and father he and his four brothers and two sisters are a very closely knit family.

Mr. Salas is an architect by profession having studied at Pratt, Cooper Union and Columbia University. He is the President and founder of a successful architectural and design-build firm in Nutley, NJ.

Francisco’s interest in art and his creative nature was apparent at a very early age. Model building, sketching and experimentation with vibrant colors and tonal quality occupied a great deal of his spare time. Well rounded, he was an excellent student as well as an athlete with a particular talent for basketball.

His interest in photography began as a quick means of capturing a scene or particular image. Subsequently his interest in photography expanded to include creation of subjects that can be best described as living sculptures. Scenes consisting of natural surroundings and materials joined artistically with man made objects of various shapes, materials and purpose.

Mr. Salas has been most influenced by Picasso. An admirer of his prolific and varied portfolio of work, he is particularly impressed with what the artist has accomplished in minimalism, abstraction and cubism. Salas, as a formally trained architect relates to these forms of art, so well done by Picasso, as the “three legs of modern architecture”.

Mr. Salas’s artwork is abstract to the eye while expressing the emotion of his soul and depth of thought. Limited only by his imagination, Salas paintings and sketch collections express deep feeling and expose the mood of the artist to the observant. His obsession with the nuances of color and his focus on planes, voids, lines and the interaction of color and shadow is readily apparent. When asked how he would define his art he replied without hesitation, “…as an abstract mental construction.”

In this interview, the artist admits that he is simultaneously fulfilled and also frustrated by his art. He states, “The act of painting provides a great sense of fulfillment yet I always feel that I could have done more with the piece.” He went on to say, “That not withstanding, art in every form is the ultimate creative form of expression for mankind.”

This author, after interviewing the man and reviewing the art, must agree with Mr. Salas.