To look at a Jim Salvati painting, is to experience a snapshot into the soul of his subjects. Each person portrayed in his work, which is thick and textured with oil paint, is telling a story about the life of the person, the emotion of that moment in time, their world surrounding them, and a warm sense of the human condition and its uniqueness. “We all have stories,” Salvati says, “and I like telling them.” Born in 1957 in the Southern California town of Upland, Salvati is the oldest of three children born to parents who passed their love of art on to the next generation. Jim’s mother would paint and his father liked to fill the house with different pieces by various artists.