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NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (AP) Over the years, Miguel and Carlos Cevallos have been attracting customers by painting posters for community nightclubs, taco trucks and restaurants in Queens, painting in the basement or dining table of businesses and through word of mouth to make a living.
Until Instagram accounts changed a lot.
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Now, the trendy Brooklyn ice cream parlor and retro Manhattan restaurant are waiting their turn to buy one of the brothers’ colorful logos.
They are in demand in music stores in San Francisco, national chain restaurants, bars in Belgium and bakeries in South Korea.
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It doesn’t matter that the brothers are over 80, or that the two, born in Ecuador and raised in Colombia, speak only limited English.
They embraced new clients and painted all day in the Manhattan apartment they shared for nearly 20 years.
“Fate is like that. Sometimes one finds success later in life,” Carlos Ceballos said recently over tea in an empty Manhattan restaurant. The brothers, dressed in suits and ties, share a muffin as they do every day.
Recent commissions have come from a bagel shop in Manhattan’s Little Italy, a newsstand in Manhattan’s West Village, a restaurant chain in Oregon and a pop-up veggie burger joint in Los Angeles.
NYCgo, the official guide for visitors and New Yorkers to New York City, recently asked the brothers to paint Queens’ iconic Unisphere, a giant metal sphere built for the 1964 World’s Fair.
“They have a special touch and are very pretty and colorful,” says Marina Cortez, manager of West Village restaurant La Bonbonniere.
The Brothers’ “All Day Breakfast!” sign is displayed on the restaurant’s patio.
The posters the brothers painted for Van Leeuwen Ice Cream read “Life without any good is bad”.
“Daily Specials. Pick any two sandwiches and buy both!” Read another article they did for Regina’s Grocery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
The Cevallos Brothers’ playful, childlike poster is made with acrylic paint, with large print and a nostalgic look.
Miguel did the drawing, Carlos did the coloring, and worked together on about six posters a week.
The brothers make 5 to 20 requests a week for their work.
The family moved from Ecuador to Colombia to follow an uncle of a Catholic priest who was working in Bogotá.
Carlos, Miguel and their older brother Victor, who grew up drawing and painting, opened an art studio and poster shop in Bogota’s Chapinero neighborhood.
Victor moved to New York in 1969 and Carlos joined him in 1974.
For years, they worked in a Times Square studio until rising rents prompted them to move to Queens.
In the 1980s, they painted posters announcing a performance at a Queens club called La Esmeralda.
“They would pay so little per poster. It’s sad,” Carlos said.
The posters feature artists such as Mexican singer Armando Manzanero and Chilean Lucho Gatica.
Meanwhile, Miguel cared for their mother until her death at the age of 101. He moved to New York in 2005 to reunite with his siblings.
Victor, who was his brother’s mentor, died in 2012.
Eventually, Aviram Cohen, who builds and installs audiovisual art at the museum, saw the brothers’ posters in Queens and approached them to ask for a poster for his wife’s new yoga studio.
In 2018, he opened their Instagram account @cevallos_bros, which became a lifeline for the brothers after the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“I did it out of admiration for their work, and after meeting them, I knew it would all go away. Most businesses throw away these posters,” said Cohen, 42.
“I feel strongly that different types of people and subcultures can enjoy their art.”
He is right. The account now has over 25,000 followers and has become their job profile and order source.
“I just love their stories,” said Happy David, who manages the Instagram accounts of La Bonbonniere and Casa Magazines, the Manhattan newsstand she also commissioned the brothers to work on.
It reminded her of signs she saw in her native Philippines.
In the digital world, “a lot of people are going back to crafting,” David said. “We want to make connections, we want to feel like someone created this.”
When asked if they plan to retire anytime soon, the Cevallos brothers quickly replied “no.”
Where do they get their energy from?
“We eat healthy,” they responded with a smile. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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