Q&A: Frank Oriti

The last place Parma native Frank Oriti thought he'd end up working was a steel mill. Yet, that's where he landed after graduating with a fine arts degree from Bowling Green State University. "I was still painting, but I had to get a job," Oriti says. He began painting portraits of people in similar situations. His collection opens at the Bonfoey Gallery Nov. 18.

Q. How do you convey your subjects' situation?

They all have their own look to them, but they all have the same kind of emotional look on their face that mirrors a feeling of acceptance that they've come back to a place that they might not leave ever again.

Q. Compared to your detailed subjects, you keep your backgrounds understated. Why?

I've lived in this neighborhood for the better part of my life, and I came home to visit, and for the first time, I actually noticed the makeup of the city. It's all block after block of pretty much the same style house.

Q. How did you develop your style of getting that point across?

I was painting this background [of one painting], and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I kept putting white over [the houses] and repainting it and then I wouldn't like it, so I'd paint white over it again. And every time I'd paint over it, the house was still showing through.