A Fairport alumna is shining a light on some of those who have suffered most during the COVID-19 pandemic: health care workers. Julia Maddalina, a 2014 Fairport High School graduate, is the artist behind Portraits of the Frontline, a series of 100 paintings showing the faces of health care workers. 

Maddalina began the series in March 2020 with a social media post offering to paint portraits of nurses and doctors on the frontlines of the emerging pandemic. The call went out, and through social media, friends and their extended networks, Maddalina says she was inundated with photos of health care workers. She says she capped the number of portraits at 100, although she received many more submissions. 

“I want to show these nurses and health care workers that we care – this is my way of doing that,’ said Maddalina.

Over the past year, Maddalina collaborated with Worldbuilders, a charity collective, to use the portraits to raise funds for Project HOPE. Maddalina designed a poster that includes the portraits, and profits from the sale of the poster go to fund PPE distribution and training. Many of the featured portraits are of nurses and doctors in the Rochester area, but through submissions online, her paintings also feature health care workers from other parts of the U.S. and the international community.  

Maddalina says her art education began young as both of her parents have professional careers in the arts. She says her experiences with Fairport’s art education department encouraged her to continue with art after she graduated. 

“I took probably every single art course [at Fairport High School] twice, I could not get enough of those classes…it made me a richer student when I went off to college,” she said. “Every year I had teachers who stood out and supported what I wanted to do, outside of their own subject…It enriched my experience and made me a more well-rounded artist.”

Maddalina’s portraits are now the subject of a show at Pittsford Fine Art on Main Street in the village of Pittsford. The show is open until mid-September. Maddalina says there has been interest in displaying the portraits in further shows outside of the Rochester area, and the collection is scheduled to be displayed at the Project HOPE Gala in Washington, D.C. later this year. 

To learn more, visit Maddalina’s website and the Portraits of the Frontline project.