Even as a young boy, Garrett Hill’s Jay Macrone had artistic gifts. He would spend hours drawing, impressing friends and family with his talents. Macrone initially set his sights on becoming a professional artist, but his father had other ideas. “My dad was very blue-collar and hardworking,” says Macrone. “He didn’t want me to go to art school because he didn’t what me to struggle making a living with a ‘hippie art degree.’”
As a history major at West Chester University, the Radnor High School grad did take a few art courses as electives. But as he became more focused on obtaining his teaching certificate, he drifted further from his passion. He later settled into a job as Radnor Township’s director of parks and recreation.
One morning on the way to work in 1998, Macrone was involved in a severe car accident. While he was lucky to escape without any significant physical injuries, the emotional trauma was another story. His therapist recommended an outlet for him to clear his mind. “Art therapy saved me,” says Macrone.“When I have a piece going, all the depression and anxiety washes away.”
Around that time, Macrone reached out to Dolya Goutman, a celebrated Russian painter and an early inspiration, who’d moved to Garrett Hill later in life. “He could see that art was my passion—that it was my way of working through things,” Macrone recalls.
In the few years before he passed away in 2001, Goutman became a mentor and a close friend, inspiring Macrone to take on more ambitious projects. First, he channeled his love of history into striking depictions of Civil War landscapes in his signature oil pastel medium. In 2000, Lord Nelson’s Gallery in Gettysburg showcased his work, and Philadelphia’s Civil War Museum commissioned three more pieces.
Soon enough, Macrone was devoting all of his time to his art—and his work was headed in a new direction. Inspired by the bright colors and vibrant patterns of fashion icon Lilly Pulitzer, he threw himself into something he calls “patternism.” He divides a piece into multiple sections, painting each in a different style, creating a “quilt on a canvas.” It’s a time-consuming creative process that can take up to a year to complete.
Macrone’s most recent project, “Philly Pheeling,” is a love letter to his home city. “When I was a kid, I used to go into Philadelphia all the time,” he says. “We’d often go shopping at the department stores and spend holidays there. Whenever I saw the skyline, it gave me a sense of comfort.”
“Philly Pheeling” is dominated by a colorful city skyline and silhouettes of a boy and girl. “I grew up in a multicultural community, and since Philly is the same way, I wanted to celebrate this diversity,” Macrone says. “I wanted to create a painting that unites people.”
Macrone felt so strongly about the piece that he approached Tomar Jackson, director of Philadelphia’s City Hall Visitor Center. “It speaks to brotherly love and sisterly affection,” Jackson says of the work, which is now on display at the center. “It’s something we should share with all our neighbors, but it’s sorely missing in today’s world.”
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