ferdiepacheco.com     "The Fight Doctor"

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"His works stem from only one place, the heart, because it shows in every work he's done," says Ernest Borgnine: One New York Post columnist wrote of Pacheco:"The Renaissance Man of the 90's, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco,has demonstrated yet another facet of his unlimited talents. His paintings have established him as a dynamic force in the World of Art."  

What is it about this artist that electrifies all connoisseurs in this manner? 

There is only one answer: Pacheco's oils reflect his love of art and a life filled with vivid personal experience. His imaginative use of color and design and his aggressive  use of vivid, slashing, colorful patterns exude a sense of strength that are bold, gutsy, personal statements of a man who has immersed himself fully in life. Pacheco has the rare ability to transfer these experiences onto canvas. It is this ability that earned him the Gold Medal and First Prize in Tonneins, France: the First Prize, Best Colorist at  Musee Du Luxembourg. 

Pacheco was seeing operations and autopsies as a child and at the same time he was starting his first paintings. Pacheco helped finance his medical education by contributing his cartoons to major national magazines. 

Pacheco's deftly designed, intensely colored pieces are abstract conceptions reflective of rich life experiences and profound academic curiosity. The anatomical integrity of painted images stems from expertise gained through medical training. His other motifs were affected by art-historical influences-specifically Vincent Van Gogh, Mexicans, Tamayo and Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, the Germans, George Grosz and Oscar Kokoscka, and the Americans, Thomas Hart Benton and Fletcher Martin. 

A highly individual sense of linear definition, linked to large blocks of color, was resulting stylistic development. 

-Roger Hurbert, art writer for The Sun Sentinel 

Ferdie Pacheco knew little Havana way before the retro-Cuban wave. As a young doctor, transplanted from his native Ybor City in Tampa, he set up his practice on South West Eighth Street the year the early Cuban exiles began streaming into the city. 

In their stories, he found echoes of his own family's immigrant roots. His father was the Cuban-born son of a Spanish consul on the island. These were stories that would stock his repertoire of detail- laden, human anecedotes and inspire splashes of colors that he would transfer onto canvas. 

These paintings are not just snapshots, but almost theatrical interpretations, the winding account of one of Miami's best storytellers. 

Liz Balmaseda, columnist for The Miami Herald 

His portrait of Albert Einstein contains a wold assortment of colors, all unplanned. It is "all heart" the artist says. He intended to show Einstein with a "sad face divided through to another dimension of thinking but had led to a highly destructive (atomic) weapon." 

Lynn Pyne, art critic for Phoenix Gazette 

His paintings will surely delight collections of works of the unschooled school. Broad sweeps of color as flamboyant as the Ali shuffle strike you in combination of yellow, red, orange, blue and green. 

Srikumur Sen, London Times 

Currently Pacheco's work is selling well in Ybor City at the Pacheco Gallery in Centro Ybor. Ferdie was commissioned by Verizon to do major work to illustrate the cover of Tampa's Yellow Pages which now can be seen on the 2000-2001 edition. Dr. Pacheco was commissioned by Joe Morrissey of St Louis to paint four large epic battle sequences each twelve feet by six feet and sold for a five figure price. They included "Picket's Charge", "The Alamo",  "Custer's Last Stand" and Marshall Ney's Charge at Waterloo." 

His paintings are in the collections of many leading personalities and celebrities in the world such as, Evander Holyfield, Showtime's Jay Larkin, Budd Shulberg. Shirley MacLaine, Ernest Borgnine, Petula Clark, Salavatore Alabiso, Al Malnik, Greg Hughes, Andy Graham, Alex de Quesada, Jack Shiver and Dr. & Mrs. Michael Rauchway. Dr. & Mrs. Walter Afield. 

Dr. Pacheco is presently serving as TV commentator for Showtime Boxing in special segments. In 1989 he won an Emmy as producer and reporter for the program "The Championship 1964". 

His published books include, Fight Doctor; Muhammad Ali, A View From The Corner; Renegade Lightening written with Robert Skimins; Ybor City  Chronicles; The Columbia Restaurant Cookbook written with Adela Gonzmart; Pacheco's Art of Ybor City a coffee table book of his art; The Christmas Eve Cookbook written along with his lovely wife Luisita Sevilla. The 12 Greatest Rounds of the Century; and Pacheco's Art of The Cubans in Exile. 

Although Dr. Pacheco's commitment to his writing and sports continue, as evidenced by his involvement in both areas, painting remains his passion. And his popularity is fast spreading to other countries within the Art World. 

Dr. Pacheco was born in Tampa, Florida, but has an ancestry deeply rooted in Spain. He is happily married to Luisita Sevilla, noted Flamenco artist and photographer, who also manages his art and types his manuscripts. They live in Miami. 
                            

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