Remebering 9/11

The vision of the late Dan Smith from Casey (who lost his long battle with cancer in 2017) lives on through a painting by artist Juan Herrera, an individual in custody who is building his art legacy through Castaway Art owned by the Wolfe family. The painting is a depiction of the real life tribute to those lost in the 9/11/01 tragedy where Dan hand cut over 3000 crosses and placed the names of each of those lost in the tragedy on a hillside of he and his wife, Virginia's, property in honor of each life, and to share with the general public. Dan was building contractor, pastor and family man who during his battle with cancer showed his strength, courage, love for his family and commitment to almighty God. 

The artist, Juan Herrera, originally hails from Mexico and moved to America for a better life living in Minnesota and California before committing a crime that sent him to prison in Illinois. He went by the name Diablo (which means devil in Spanish) but found his Lord and Savior behind prison walls and taught himself to do artistic portraits with nothing more than a small pencil and paper in an 8x12 cell to help cope with the pain, anxiety, depression and sold countless artwork and has reached out to the Elvis Presley Foundation and Marilyn Monroe Foundation for work he hopes to commission for them. 

Juan is also working on a comic strip called "Prison Life." His work can be viewed at www.castawaymg.art