Every Picture Tells A Story For Artist Gregory Piro

Photo Credit: CHEYENNE PINO

BY CAMILA SOSA

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a cliché often overused by those who fail to embrace the beauty of the infamous idiom. Gregory Piro, a Cooper City High School student, is one of the few who live by it. Sitting down at a table with him, I see the very meaning of the phrase unfold before my eyes. He begins with a small sketch, moving his pencil gracefully over a sheet of paper. Suddenly, he stops, his eyebrows furrowed, leaning over the paper, and he seems to wait for an idea. And then it comes, translating quickly into precise, detailed lines. To an onlooker like me, his effortless and confident manner makes it all seem like magic.

From an early age, Piro showed signs of his remarkable talent, especially the development of an artistic mentality.

“I remember when I was about six or seven, I was at Magic Kingdom and just looking around, I tried to imagine how I could draw this or that,” Piro said.

Not only did Piro draw inspiration from his favorite places, but he often cribbed the pictures found in storybooks, coloring books, magazines, and just about anything. At school, his artistic mind was a great distraction, as he would frequently drift off from the lesson doodling on the margins of his school paper.

“Every kid draws, you know, and looking back at my drawings, they were certainly elementary but they had context,” Piro said.

Soon, his doodles evolved to elaborate portraits of his family members, friends, and favorite artists. However, portraits weren’t enough of an outlet for his growing passion.  Fortunately, he found solace in the art of airbrushing, an art form he came across on the internet. He started off simply airbrushing celebrities on t-shirts and by the age of thirteen had covered a range of designs. These included classic beach scenes to realistic skulls and fires, which he eventually got to airbrush onto cars. This new art form opened up many opportunities, but most importantly it allowed Piro to advertise his art.

On a trip to Downtown Disney, Piro encountered what would become one of his other major projects: caricatures.

“When I came across a caricature stand, I told the artist about my background in drawing and he let me sit right in,” Piro said. “He taught me a couple of things and I thought I could do it.”

Once he arrived home, Piro tested out what he had learned, starting off with celebrity faces, and found he had a knack for it. With a little help from YouTube tutorials, Piro began to master the art and was soon uploading pictures to social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in order to entice others to purchase one. The attempt was incredibly successful; he got requests from friends and even a few acquaintances that were willing to pay for the exaggerated versions of themselves.

“I usually base my caricatures on someone’s favorite picture of themselves,” Piro said. “I exaggerate the most noticeable facial features. If they have a wide smile, I emphasize that and so on. It’s comical and relatively simple.”

Today, Piro continues to create caricatures and is able to draw virtually anyone by now. He’s also taking an advanced studio class where he is learning to improve other artistic skills.

“Greg is very energetic, he is always doing more than what is asked and above all he is creative,” Art Teacher Katherine Sharp said. “This year, I want to present him with more problems to solve more unfamiliar media.”

Piro not only gains knowledge from Sharp, but also from classmates who are often inspired by his work and vice versa.

“Gregory has a good grip on various artistic techniques and he also has a wild imagination,” Portfolio 3 Honors student Angelina Spataro said. “That’s what I admire most about him.”

With such infectious ambition, Piro refuses to learn solely in the classroom setting. Inspired by a few close friends, he has recently ventured into the digital arts, teaching himself a few photographic skills. He attends car shows where he photographs some of his favorite cars. Other photographs of his feature everyday people and his vacations.

Photo Credit: CHEYENNE PINO

He has also begun spray painting outer space scenes. These paintings usually show planetary figures over a busy city or just space in general. In order to advertise these paintings as well as his other artwork, he has launched his own website on Weebly. Titled “Greg Piro’s Fine Art”, the online portfolio will soon display albums of each style of art.

For now, Piro plans to do more of the same art styles and gain recognition. But, of course, if other interests arise he’s ready to take them on.

“I’m up for anything,” Piro said. “I know I’m good at what I do so I’m ready to embrace it anyway I can.”

As his drawing comes to an end, Piro adds a few shadings here and there to create depth. He smiles in satisfaction at his drawing and I see him look up at something behind me. As I turn around to see what he’s staring at, I come to the realization that he was drawing a teenage boy standing near us, nonchalantly sipping his coffee. This ability to find art all around him is what makes Piro the multi-talented artist he is.