Dorothy and Neal Portnoy. Photo courtesy of David O Photo

Portrait of an Artist: The Portnoys Give Back Through Art

BY STACEY GUALANDI

It never fails. Whenever portrait artist Neal Portnoy meets someone, they always ask, “Can you do me?”

In just six short years, the Boston native has made his felt-tip mark in Las Vegas and realized his dream of becoming the “Illustrator to the Stars.” So this Portnoy has no complaints.

Name any popular performer, politician, or personality—on and off the Strip—and you can bet they’ve been “Portnoyed.” (Yes, that’s a thing!)

For many of those fortunate enough to get caricatured on canvas, they see his portraits as a badge of honor; it’s an “I’ve arrived” vibe.

“Vanity, vanity, vanity,” admits Neal. “I have no other way to explain it.”

Quick side note: I won the chance to get “Portnoyed” in a charity raffle, and I won’t lie. I am honored to hang with a “Who’s Who of Sin City.” Maybe someday I’ll even get to “hang” on Portnoy Gallery’s “Wall of Honor!”

Neal says his downtown gallery has 3,200 square feet of wall space, all filled with portraits, but he adds, “I have five times that I still haven’t framed!”

He definitely has no trouble filling wall space. In fact, Neal’s largest work to date—a 28 x 40-foot black-and-white mural of the Raiders—is on full display inside Allegiant Stadium.

“I had done the drawing a year before they even got here because I did my homework,” boasts Neal. “I heard they were coming, and I wanted to do the greatest Raiders mural of all time. It took me two weeks, eight hours a day, five days a week.”

26′ x 40′ mural of the Raiders inside Allegiant Stadium

It’s that desire to make an impact, says Dorothy, Neal’s wife of 15 years, that fueled their move across the country—with all 5,000 markers—to open a Las Vegas gallery together.

“We had this five-year plan, and then I ended up between jobs,” says Dorothy. “So, one day, Neal has an epiphany and says, ‘Book a trip to Vegas! It’s the entertainment capital of the world. We should be there!’”

Now that he has literally made a name for himself in Las Vegas, Neal is also putting those markers where his mouth is. The Portnoys say it’s important they use his God-given talent for good.

“When we had events here at the gallery, we wanted to help out the community, so we started giving back,” says Dorothy. “For many years, we raised funds for St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, which was great.”

Since then, the Portnoys have raised money every month for performers and their charities-of-choice at the “Wine and Music” gallery events. Last year, they were invited to become ambassadors for The Tyler Robinson Foundation. Neal made a thousand limited-run prints of the band “Imagine Dragons,” the founders of TRF, to help support families battling pediatric cancer.

“The band has the potential for distribution of this print on all of their social media to raise half a million dollars!” boasts Neal.

Dorothy says no gesture is too big or too small when it comes to giving hope to those who need it most.

“I see the reactions of people when they get Portnoyed,” says Dorothy. “When Neal decides to do a portrait randomly, he picks someone, and then we get the phone call: ‘Oh my God, you have no idea what a day I was having and how much this just made me feel happy. I can’t believe that you did this for me.’”

Stacey Gualandi with her caricature by Neal Portnoy

If anyone understands the power of hope, it’s Neal Portnoy.

“I’ve been there,” admits Neal. “I grew up in a housing project in Worcester, Massachusetts. My mother passed away when I was 14 years old. We never owned a house; we never owned a car…we literally didn’t have anything. We were very poor.”

As a young boy, Neal was drawn to sketching but relied on his athletic ability to escape the projects. Eventually, he found his field of dreams until a career-ending injury sent him back to the drawing board.

“I cried for a couple of weeks because my dream was gone,” admits Neal. “I literally went inward and became very defensive when people would say, ‘Oh Neal, he’s good at copying pictures,’ but I never got any credit. To this day, I’m proving people wrong. I’m gonna get it done, and I’m gonna figure it out.”

Neal’s career finally took off after being asked to draw a college basketball team as a gift. That led to a massive body of “athlete artwork” and hundreds of commemorative program cover commissions for countless universities. And it didn’t take Neal long to parlay his passion for portraiture into performance art at trade shows, weddings, and corporate events.

“In five minutes, I have a full-color cartoon that looks like you,” says Neal. “I’m like Don Rickles with a pen. Can I draw? Yes, but my job is to make sure that I am the most entertaining at a trade show. You want to keep people at your booth? You bring me in, and I’ll keep ’em there.”

As a “former jock who happens to draw,” Neal says his love of sports (just as his ring tone interrupts with “Put Me in Coach…”) is what inspired the Portnoys’ early charity work.

Marie Osmond and the Children’s Miracle Network commissioned him to create an original multi-action portrait of longtime Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.

“It raised $384,000 [at auction] and helped build a wing at Duke Children’s Hospital.”

Neal’s illustration of NFL quarterback Doug Flutie called “Flutie Through the Years” raised money for the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. The Portnoys also became actively involved with The Jimmy Fund, the fundraising wing of the Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute.

“I felt like, ‘Who can I cheer up today?’” says Neal. “I’d walk out of there, and I’d lose it because that kid may not make it.”

“Portnoyed” Wall of Honor

Jump to Las Vegas years later, and Neal is still cheering people up. During the pandemic, dozens of the people and performers adorning his gallery walls were out of work and struggling.

“Nobody was making money, so I said, ‘Here’s a way we can give back to the entertainers so at least they can make some money,’” says Neal.

Adds Dorothy, “We set up a website, and we put all of their caricatures on coffee mugs, pendants, and ornaments. To this day, we continue to give 50 percent of the net proceeds of those sales back to the individual entertainer.”

But then, Neal got COVID, and the prognosis wasn’t good. At one point, he had double pneumonia in both lungs and a severe blood clot. He was literally dying.

“Truthfully, I was ready to go,” admits Neal. “I thought if I leave tomorrow, I will be remembered. I’ve already made my mark, so that kind of changed my whole perspective on life.”

But the community whose spirits he had spent years lifting came out in full force to keep him from losing hope.

To illustrate, performer David Tatlock of the Soul Juice Band posted this message on social media not long ago. Neal still gets choked up while reading it.

“What I really appreciate about Neal is that he and his wife Dorothy generally care about people and help them in practical, sincere ways,” writes Tatlock. “Neal’s been so encouraging in so many ways…he wants to see you succeed as much as he wants himself to succeed, and that’s rare indeed. He has donated so much time to helping numerous charities, raising millions for people in need, and using his talent for causes that matter. Neal’s been good to so many in the community, and I really appreciate our friendship.”

Now the Portnoys are drawing on that mutual support as they continue to find new ways to provide others hope. Neal knows life isn’t picture-perfect, but he’s not ready to turn in his markers yet. After all, he’s got places to go, charities to meet, and people to do.

“Our goal will always be to put a smile on somebody’s face every day and to leave a lasting impression.”

To learn more and to take a tour, go to portnoygallery.com