Josh Bowden

My Experience:

When my wife mentioned it too me I jumped at the chance mainly because I love painting and drawing portraits and any of them I can do is more practice and more of my work in the public eye. She was contacted through Facebook by a friend of hers asking if I would be interested. To be honest I avoid the news at all costs these days and didn’t really understand the magnitude of the Pulse shooting. It was like a slap in the face as I poured over the list of victims to choose one to draw. Here I was a day late and a dollar short just learning the details of this disaster and how on earth do you pick someone to honor! It was a very emotional time reading details about people’s lives and trying to decide who I would do a portrait of. Ultimately I picked Rodolfo because his job resonated with me and the pictures I found of him spoke to me. He was always happy looking and surrounded by friends and coworkers who appeared to love him dearly. I can’t say I ever really felt connected to him but drawing him brought back memories of losing my own best friend years earlier and saddened me to think about his friends and family that must miss him so much! Just thinking about the horror of the event and that someone could do such a thing was hard to get through at times. I only hoped that it would mean the world to his family and give them something to hang proudly in his memory. The response the project has gotten from friends and families of the victims is awesome and very emotional itself.

Bio:

Josh Bowden
Josh Bowden

Josh Bowden is a self taught fine artist and tattoo artist in Marietta, GA where he resides with his wife Teri and their five children.  Being A very versatile artist, Josh works with many different mediums and in several varying styles but has always had a passion for portrait art.

More information about Josh’s work can be found at www.joshuabowden.com
Instagram @jbowdenart

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