{"id":3420,"date":"2022-05-02T16:19:48","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T23:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:56:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:56:54","slug":"portrait-of-an-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/portrait-of-an-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait of an Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chic<\/span><\/div>
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This article was printed in<\/em>
\nChic Compass Magazine - Issue 11<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Dorothy<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Dorothy and Neal Portnoy. Photo courtesy of David O Photo<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Portrait of an Artist: The Portnoys Give Back Through Art<\/h1>\n

BY STACEY GUALANDI<\/p>\n<\/div>

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It never fails. Whenever portrait artist Neal Portnoy meets someone, they always ask, \u201cCan you do me?\u201d<\/p>\n

In just six short years, the Boston native has made his felt-tip mark in Las Vegas and realized his dream of becoming the \u201cIllustrator to the Stars.\u201d So this Portnoy has no complaints.<\/p>\n

Name any popular performer, politician, or personality\u2014on and off the Strip\u2014and you can bet they\u2019ve been \u201cPortnoyed.\u201d (Yes, that\u2019s a thing!)<\/p>\n

For many of those fortunate enough to get caricatured on canvas, they see his portraits as a badge of honor; it\u2019s an \u201cI\u2019ve arrived\u201d vibe.<\/p>\n

\u201cVanity, vanity, vanity,\u201d admits Neal. \u201cI have no other way to explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick side note: I won the chance to get \u201cPortnoyed\u201d in a charity raffle, and I won\u2019t lie. I am honored to hang with a \u201cWho\u2019s Who of Sin City.\u201d Maybe someday I\u2019ll even get to \u201chang\u201d on Portnoy Gallery\u2019s \u201cWall of Honor!\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal says his downtown gallery has 3,200 square feet of wall space, all filled with portraits, but he adds, \u201cI have five times that I still haven\u2019t framed!\u201d<\/p>\n

He definitely has no trouble filling wall space. In fact, Neal\u2019s largest work to date\u2014a 28 x 40-foot black-and-white mural of the Raiders\u2014is on full display inside Allegiant Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had done the drawing a year before they even got here because I did my homework,\u201d boasts Neal. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Raiders<\/span><\/div><\/div>

26' x 40' mural of the Raiders inside Allegiant Stadium<\/p>\n<\/div>

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It\u2019s that desire to make an impact, says Dorothy, Neal\u2019s wife of 15 years, that fueled their move across the country\u2014with all 5,000 markers\u2014to open a Las Vegas gallery together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this five-year plan, and then I ended up between jobs,\u201d says Dorothy. \u201cSo, one day, Neal has an epiphany and says, \u2018Book a trip to Vegas! It\u2019s the entertainment capital of the world. We should be there!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s important they use his God-given talent for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had events here at the gallery, we wanted to help out the community, so we started giving back,\u201d says Dorothy. \u201cFor many years, we raised funds for St. Jude\u2019s Ranch for Children, which was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, the Portnoys have raised money every month for performers and their charities-of-choice at the \u201cWine and Music\u201d 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 \u201cImagine Dragons,\u201d the founders of TRF, to help support families battling pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe band has the potential for distribution of this print on all of their social media to raise half a million dollars!\u201d boasts Neal.<\/p>\n

Dorothy says no gesture is too big or too small when it comes to giving hope to those who need it most.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cI see the reactions of people when they get Portnoyed,\u201d says Dorothy. \u201cWhen Neal decides to do a portrait randomly, he picks someone, and then we get the phone call: \u2018Oh my God, you have no idea what a day I was having and how much this just made me feel happy. I can\u2019t believe that you did this for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Stacey<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Stacey Gualandi with her caricature by Neal Portnoy<\/p>\n<\/div>

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If anyone understands the power of hope, it\u2019s Neal Portnoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been there,\u201d admits Neal. \u201cI 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\u2026we literally didn\u2019t have anything. We were very poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried for a couple of weeks because my dream was gone,\u201d admits Neal. \u201cI literally went inward and became very defensive when people would say, \u2018Oh Neal, he\u2019s good at copying pictures,\u2019 but I never got any credit. To this day, I\u2019m proving people wrong. I\u2019m gonna get it done, and I\u2019m gonna figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal\u2019s career finally took off after being asked to draw a college basketball team as a gift. That led to a massive body of \u201cathlete artwork\u201d and hundreds of commemorative program cover commissions for countless universities. And it didn\u2019t take Neal long to parlay his passion for portraiture into performance art at trade shows, weddings, and corporate events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn five minutes, I have a full-color cartoon that looks like you,\u201d says Neal. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019ll keep \u2019em there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a \u201cformer jock who happens to draw,\u201d Neal says his love of sports (just as his ring tone interrupts with \u201cPut Me in Coach\u2026\u201d) is what inspired the Portnoys' early charity work.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Marie Osmond and the Children\u2019s Miracle Network commissioned him to create an original multi-action portrait of longtime Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt raised $384,000 [at auction] and helped build a wing at Duke Children\u2019s Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal\u2019s illustration of NFL quarterback Doug Flutie called \u201cFlutie Through the Years\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like, \u2018Who can I cheer up today?\u2019\u201d says Neal. \u201cI\u2019d walk out of there, and I\u2019d lose it because that kid may not make it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Portnoyed\" Wall of Honor<\/p>\n<\/div>

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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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody was making money, so I said, \u2018Here\u2019s a way we can give back to the entertainers so at least they can make some money,\u2019\u201d says Neal.<\/p>\n

Adds Dorothy, \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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But then, Neal got COVID, and the prognosis wasn\u2019t good. At one point, he had double pneumonia in both lungs and a severe blood clot. He was literally dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruthfully, I was ready to go,\u201d admits Neal. \u201cI thought if I leave tomorrow, I will be remembered. I\u2019ve already made my mark, so that kind of changed my whole perspective on life.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the community whose spirits he had spent years lifting came out in full force to keep him from losing hope.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really appreciate about Neal is that he and his wife Dorothy generally care about people and help them in practical, sincere ways,\u201d writes Tatlock. \u201cNeal\u2019s been so encouraging in so many ways\u2026he wants to see you succeed as much as he wants himself to succeed, and that\u2019s 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\u2019s been good to so many in the community, and I really appreciate our friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the Portnoys are drawing on that mutual support as they continue to find new ways to provide others hope. Neal knows life isn\u2019t picture-perfect, but he\u2019s not ready to turn in his markers yet. After all, he\u2019s got places to go, charities to meet, and people to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal will always be to put a smile on somebody\u2019s face every day and to leave a lasting impression.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more and to take a tour, go to portnoygallery.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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It never fails. Whenever portrait artist Neal Portnoy meets someone, they always ask, \u201cCan you do me?\u201d In just six short years, the Boston native has made his felt-tip mark in Las Vegas and realized his dream of becoming the \u201cIllustrator to the Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4522,3681],"tags":[1026,2831,3707,3706,267,3705,3704,3128,3708],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-issue-11","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-caricatures","tag-dorothy-portnoy","tag-las-vegas","tag-neal-portnoy","tag-portnoyed","tag-stacey-gualandi","tag-wall-of-honor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11352,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions\/11352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}