East Providence Artist Emmet Estrada Continues to Amaze

Emmet Estrada, a painter from East Providence, works with a focus unknown to many artists. He produces an average of seventy 3-inch by 4-inch paintings per day. Seamus Hames, the coordinator at Estrada’s studio, says: “When he arrives, he only wants to work. He takes a lunch break and eats as fast as possible. He would literally work until he fell asleep, if we didn’t assist him going home.”  

Estrada works at the Top Drawer Art Studio in Warren a couple of days a week. Top Drawer, also known as The Brass, is an art studio for adults with developmental disabilities. The Brass not only gives them a space to work, but also encourages them to show their work locally and nationally, exposing their creativity to new audiences. 

Estrada's work has been featured in a Manhattan gallery and last year, the Kennedy Center’s Explore the Arts show honored a series of his paintings. He was one of the hundred artists selected from about 500 applicants and dozens of his small, simplistic figure drawings were arranged in a gallery in Washington D.C.

Estrada had never done art before he came to Top Drawer and he discovered it like a “hidden talent,” Hames says. He comes to the Top Drawer Thursdays and Fridays and works every single minute. Though Estrada is dedicated to his work, he finds time to joke and laugh with the other artists.  When one of his neighbors sneezes, twice, he calls out a jovial “Bless you.”

The small figures in each of his paintings take up the whole frame. Each figure is slightly different from the next and each signifies different cultures, both real and imaginary. The men with striped shirts and berets—French. Others are Chinese, some are Indian, and some are Mexican fighters, Estrada says.

Beat-up markers are his preferred medium. The dried-up markers allow for him to draw as fast as he possibly can, and the layers of the old ink create a complex faded effect. Estrada draws on any surface he can find; he goes through so many materials its difficult to keep his supplies stocked up.

Estrada’s technique has developed even since his last show. His work has become denser and more complicated in theme, Hames says. Instead of just painting one simple figure at a time, Estrada paints actions and ideas. In a pause after fervently sketching, he holds up a large piece of blue cardboard with darker blue lines and circles across its border.

“Skydiving,” Estrada announces.

When he first begins, there is a pause. He looks at the canvas for a second and ruminates.  Then—a concentrated fury. His whole energy is thrown into his work.  “It’s same energy every day,” says Hames, “I have never seen him with a lag in the energy he brings to this.”

When he gets started, he works with purpose. He fills in the piece immediately, not resting until it’s complete. 

See some of Emmet Estrada’s work at the Brass studio at 16 Cutler St. (behind Tom's Market), Warren. Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.