Stanley Gordon is a portrait artist with an international reputation. He taught art at RIT for twenty years, but is best known for his portrait work. Through the decades he has been called on to paint numerous American presidents, Sophia Loren and other movie stars, world famous musicians like Rubenstein and Paderewski, and many famous Rochesterians. His portrait of Jimmy Carter hangs in the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, while the one of Pope John Paul II is in Rockefeller Center in New York City, and his Howard Hanson portrait is displayed here in Rochester in Kilbourn Hall. His paintings of Christ and the Pope were used in a poster for the Pope's Toronto visit, and more than 30,000 prints of his Christ painting have sold on QVC. He was recently commissioned to paint the portrait of Kate Gleason for the Gleason Engineering Building at RIT. Filled with a tremendous enthusiasm for his work, Mr. Gordon draws inspiration for his artwork through his travels, especially to Spain where he has done portraits of famous toreadors.

Stanley hasn't only painted portraits of the rich and famous, though. He recalls one of his most meaningful art projects as a sketch artist for the USO during WWII when he visited North Atlantic bases and did charcoal sketches of over a thousand GI's. He recalls that he really developed his ability to work quickly since he had so many portraits to do in a limited period of time at each base. The portraits were sent home to grateful family members, many of whom wrote to thank Stanley after he returned to the U.S.