Felipe Rivera Ortiz – Pandemics Brings An Artist To Sacred Art
A self-taught Puerto Rican artist. Learned to draw from a book that his uncle gave him. Wanted to become a priest. Painted one of the official portraits of the Pope Francis.
Felipe Rivera Ortiz was born in Puerto Rico to a family of musicians. He calls himself a self-taught artist. His passion for the visual arts began at young age when he, an 11y.o. boy received a gift from his uncle – a book about art, with drawings and paintings of great old masters – Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. A year later he already started drawing and painting and was selling his artworks to financially help out his parents and six siblings.
When Felipe was a young adult he spent a year studying philosophy and theology. This is when he felt inclined towards the priestly vocation. During this time he realised that his way of evangelising and reaching ordinary people was art and that his art shows his own spiritual search.
“My training was self-taught when I began to read a collection of books that one of my uncles gave me about Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo (Da Vinci), and I saw in the books the Sistine Chapel, the Mona Lisa and through observation , I took on the task of recreating that type of image, without any knowledge of art,” – Felipe Rivera Ortiz.
The true discovery of the sacred art happened to Felipe Rivera Ortiz during the Covid pandemics – he began painting the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
One of Rivera’s greatest achievements is creating an official portrait of the Pope Francis in 2022.
A Note to Academic Path
Felipe Rivera Ortiz studied Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce and took a one-year course of theology and philosophy. Today he is an visual artist/painter, sculptor and professor of Visual Arts. A proud participant of several Biennale in Argentina and Italy.
Website: feliperiveraortiz.com
Instagram: feliperiveraortiz
Facebook: Felipe Rivera Ortiz
