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One of numerous paintings created by Boynton Beach resident Tina DeGeorge, 84, to honor victims of the 911 terrorist attacks. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)
Life has always inspired Tina DeGeorge to paint – and, in turn, her paintings have inspired others.
Touring her two-bedroom condo in Boynton Beach, she leads a guest from room to room, each of which is adorned with some of the dozens if not hundreds of canvases she has painted in her 84 years. There are portraits, depictions of animals and tranquil landscapes of places she’s visited.
Tina DeGeorge with another of her paintings. (Damon Higgins / Palm Beach Post)
As she heads to her room, she stops to peek through her bifocals.
"I don’t usually invite men into my bedroom. But you’re special," she says with a twinkle and a chuckle. And you can see why she once co-owned a New York comedy club and one of her sons grew up to be a comedian.
She shows off paintings she made of quarterback Y.A. Tittle dropping back to pass in his New York Giants uniform and a landscape of one of the Rangers-Canadians hockey games the family of eight used to attend in the old Madison Square Garden, and you can see why one of her sons went on to become a sports broadcaster.
And if you know her, you can understand why just days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, she began to paint again.
The images from Ground Zero were emblazoned into her mind. The images that appeared on television and in newspapers made their way onto her canvases.
And when she was done, she had a poster-sized compilation of her works printed and sent to former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who placed the canvas in his New York office.
"I am pleased to that you chose to share your creative talents with me," he wrote her in a letter she has next to the 9/11 artwork. "Every piece of artwork that seeks to commemorate the events of September 11th pays tribute to the men and women who gave their lives on that day. I applaud your efforts."
"I was watching television when it happened. I was horrified," she said as the 10-year anniversary of that day nears. "After that, I started painting, just to get it out (of me). It was therapy."
She wonders how the upcoming anniversary of September 11 will affect her painting. Because, somehow, it must.
She grew up in Brooklyn and lived in Long Island for most of the 33 years before she was divorced. New York and the arts were her passion. When she started painting in 1960, the married Katherine Minervini became Tina DeGeorge, using her nickname and her maiden name from the beginning to sign her art.
"Doesn’t DeGeorge sound very artistic? I guess I wanted to be a modern woman," she said.
She would take the train into the city to listen to Frank Sinatra sing or to watch a play. And at home, she taught herself how to play piano, even as she was raising six children – five of whom were born in a span of six years.
"There are songs, to this day, that I will hear – songs from West Side Story, Sinatra – and I think of my mother playing it on the piano," said her youngest son, Craig Minervini, who works as a Florida Marlins broadcaster for Fox Sports Florida.
Three of her children acted in high school, Craig playing alongside Rosie O’Donnell as teenagers. Today, she loves hearing her grandchildren, such as the one studying photography or another who is a graphic artist, say they get their artistic genes from their grandmother.
When her oldest child entered college, she reentered the workforce to help support the family. She eventually became the office manager and bookkeeper for Contractors Layout, the company that made many of the initial surveys for the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. So when she saw the towers come down, it struck a personal chord.
"When it happened, she was touched like a lot of Americans," her son, Doug Minervini, said.
In between her working life, she continued painting. She would tune in and follow along as the late Bob Ross painted his "happy little trees" on Sunday morning on PBS.
But she has a style all her own. In the corner of her painting studio is a van Gogh-esque red-haired girl resting her chin on her hand with a faraway look.
"I think I was having trouble with my daughter at the time. She was a little bit of a hippie," she said, tracing the portrait with her eyes. "You look at her and say, ‘Hmm, she must have problems.’ "
She stops and laughs. "Or maybe her mother does."
Today, when she starts painting, her family knows not to call. She goes on a painting binge. She slips out to her studio – the enclosed patio overlooking the lake in her community – and contemplates the herons that land just outside her door as she begins to paint.
"She’s passionate about (her art)," Craig Minervini said, "and I think that’s what she passed down to us – an incredible passion for life."
