A Man and his work

[Mike McCarty]

I've spent the last few days in my home town of San Antonio, Texas. While back home I always try and find time to visit my favorite restaurant in the whole world. I have been going to the "Mi Tierra Cafe Y Panaderia" ever since I was a small boy. It has not changed 5% in that time.

This is a very large restaurant. We were put in the very back dining room, and to my delight, I met a local portrait artist named Robert Ytuarte. Robert was painting, restoring and revitalizing a large a la fresco mural.

I approached him and introduced myself as a portrait artist and we began blabbing away. He was working on a flamenco dancer and complaining about guess what? Thats right, poor photo reference.

I asked if there would be a self portrait on his mural and he thought that there should be. I excused myself and ran out to the car and got my camera bag. When I got back to my table I set my young nephew up in what I thought was a reasonable light and took a few practice shots. I then went back to Robert and asked him to come pose for a head and shoulder shot that I would send back to him.

The following are some of the shots I took. The mural shown represents about 60% of the total, it extends much further to the right. The inset portion shows Frida Kehlo and Diego Rivera. The others are notable Hispanic figures.