OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Joan Emanuelli Sanchez, a Central Florida Hispanic artist known for spreading his Latin culture through his work, plans to use his paintings to bring awareness to an issue important to him.

Emanuelli, his middle name and artist name, began to paint to treat his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The U.S. Army veteran was diagnosed with PTSD when he returned home from Afghanistan.

What You Need To Know

  • Hispanic artist Joan Emanuelli Sanchez hopes to use his art to help others

  • His new gallery, called "At the Margins," focuses on people ignored or facing discrimination

  • Creating the paintings also helps him treat his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

  • Emanuelli said he hopes people who see his art develop empathy toward those who have struggled

“After starting to do this, I finally found something that [can help me] reconnect,” he said.

His latest artwork will feature people who he felt are ignored or discriminated against by society — including people of color, foster children, the disabled (physically or mentally) and the homeless.

It was partly inspired by his experience with PTSD and what he witnessed walking down the streets of Central Florida.

Everyone in his latest artwork for his new gallery called “At the Margin” is made up of people he met in real life, like his hero, his late-father-in-law Rene DeHoyos, who also struggled with PTSD.

DeHoyos was a Borinqueneer, a member of the famous all Puerto-Rican U.S. Army 65th infantry that fought in the Korean War.

For people he meets for the first time and wants to include in his paintings, he approaches them, asks them about their story, takes a photo of them and tries to best capture who they are in his paintings.

“It feels good because people need to, more people need to know,  what’s going on out here in the streets,” Melvin Johnson said.

Johnson was a 54-year-old Emanuelli met outside a Walmart in Osceola County.

Johnson said he has lived in the streets since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he was used to being ignored, so being seen is something he hardly experiences.

Among Johnson’s group was Logan Edge, 30, who became homeless last October.

Emanuelli will include her in his gallery as well.

“My life changed in a second,” she said. “It’s nice to have someone notice and actually care to know what’s behind preconceived notions.”

Their stories are what Emanuelli said he has heard repeatedly. He said it’s why he feels compelled to share them with his artwork.

“[I want to] make [people who see my art] be more conscious and develop empathy and kindness to these people who for some reason have struggled," he said.