FREDA OCRAN, RN

Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, NY

Kwame Ocran said his mother was the center of his world, and recalled memories of being at Hunter College and leaving Manhattan to travel up to the Bronx to Jacobi to see his mom for a couple hours at a time. “While she was here, she was the life of the party,” he said. “She worked with everyone with such aplomb and dignity. She worked and dedicated herself to her job, despite all the politics that happened in the American workplace., my mother was supernatural. She was a diva. She often told me, ‘Kwame, don’t you know, I’m the queen?’ And look at her; she is so regal.”

ARTIST - BEA OBCENA is a contemporary realist artist born and raised in Davao City, Philippines who specializes in portraits, still life, and animals (mainly birds). She admires the rich contrast of tenebrism and believes that it highlights the feature of the subject thus captures the viewer’s attention. Her favorite portrait subjects are females as they possess delicate features and like to reflect the softness and subtlety on her paintings. Obcena was inspired by the works of the old masters, mainly Vermeer, Rembrandt, Sargent, da Vinci, and among others. Through her paintings and drawings, she reflects the beauty in her own perspective through her desired mediums.