Love for a Lifetime: Clarkesville artist paints shooting victims of '17 Las Vegas massacre
The following story was published in the Oct. 19, 2018 edition of The Northeast Georgian. Scroll to the end of the story to see the original publication.
BY ERIC PEREIRA
On the night after the 2017 tragic Las Vegas, Nevada shooting, which killed 59 people, Tony Burditus of West Virginia and Heather Melton of Tennessee shared the somber bond of losing a spouse, which led to them becoming close friends at Vegas’ Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center.
Little did they know the love they each had for their significant others would soon be displayed through paintings created by Clarkesville artist Will Lecorchick. The portraits of the couples have earned national attention thanks to social media.
The connection between the victims and the painter began with Lecorchick’s friend, James Johnston, who became friends with Burditus through Facebook following the massacre. Johnston had asked Lecorchick to paint a picture of Burditus and his late wife, Denise.
“I didn’t know what the scenario was and somewhere in the process [Johnston] had told me [Tony Burditus] had lost his wife in Vegas and I was like, ‘Wow, now I definitely have to do this’ ... I felt that it was necessary,” Lecorchick said.
Burditus had only found out about the painting when it was near completion.
“That painting is unbelievable,” Tony Burditus said. “I’ve got pictures of it, but to have that brought out in that painting, it brings me to tears now ... the kindness in people and the generosity in people, of James and Will, and doing that is just icing on the cake. It just made it that much better and that much more meaningful.”
Receiving the painting in the mail made that moment one he’ll never forget.
“I was by myself ... it was definitely an emotional time,” Tony Burditus said. “I couldn’t take it all in. It was very emotional and still sits in my living room for me to look at every day.”
Lecorchick said the painting took him about 20 hours to complete for a standard 18-inch-by-20-inch canvas.
“When I finally completed it, it was the first time I went onto Tony’s Facebook, and I saw all the things he wrote about his wife, and I was very moved by that,” Lecorchick said. “Just to see how much he loved his wife and how tragically she was taken ... that was the first time I actually felt connected to the tragedy and the event itself.”
Having lived in Clarkesville for about 14 years, Lecorchick said he’s been painting since high school.
“I’m not a professional artist in a sense of where I had any training,” he said. “I took art classes in school. In terms of technical school or art school, I’ve never done any of that.”
Once Melton had seen the painting of Tony Burditus with his wife, Denise, she knew she had to get one done of herself with Sonny, her husband who was also killed in Las Vegas.
“I saw that painting (of the Burditus couple) ... it took my breath away. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen something that captured a feeling in just a piece of art like that,” Heather Melton said.
Lecorchick said Heather Melton’s painting took about 140-150 hours, measuring at 3 feet by 5 feet.
He said these paintings were much more difficult when compared to his preferred style of surreal or abstract art.
“... Because the expectation when you’re doing portraits for the painting to look like the person,” Lecorchick said. “Any kind of distortion in the face can really throw off the picture, so ... you have to pay a lot more attention to what you’re doing as far as placements, color.”
Although Lecorchick may have felt the pressure, Heather Melton was more than pleased with the finished painting.
“It was just perfect,” Heather Melton said. “It’s perfect in my home, it’s a perfect representation I think of Sonny and I. There’s really nothing I would change about it. He nailed it.”
Lecorchick thanks his mother for his artistic sense, but he attributes his gift to God.
“To see people moved emotionally by work that I did, definitely affected me very deeply to my core,” Lecorchick said.
