Portrait Unveiled

In 2007, Sasha [as Aleksander is fondly called] was commissioned to paint First Lady Laura Bush's portrait. In December, the Titovets traveled to Washington, DC for the unveiling at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery where the President and First Lady Laura's portraits will hang.

Jovial and never without words, Sasha was speechless when he was first contacted by the White House. In 1992, the Titovets left their homeland and the city of St. Petersburg where they had each studied and begun their artist pursuits. Sixteen years later, he was invited to the White House to meet the First Lady. It is an extraordinary honor for the Russian who came to this country with twenty-five dollars, painted garage doors when he first arrived in El Paso, and in a few short years achieved national recognition as a artist.