Artist uses his brush to turn Surfside’s pain into hope

SURFSIDE, Fla — Roberto Marquez flew from Dallas to Miami nearly two weeks ago, hoping to add his hands to those digging through the rubble of a fallen South Florida condo building.

An epic search for victims was already underway by an army of first responders, initially for survivors and now for bodies.

Still, the 59-year-old artist felt compelled to contribute to the cause, something that might uplift the Surfside community amid so much anguish.

“What happened is a tragedy,” Marquez said Friday, as he brushed gray paint onto a canvass.

On one side of Marquez’s cubist painting, a first responder reaches upward for a victim.

Marquez at first thought about removing a dove — a symbol he used to depict the survivors waiting to be found — when officials announced earlier in the week that there was no hope anyone would be found alive.

“The story is here, and I’m trying to bring it out,” he said.

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