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Alvin, slight and soft-spoken, is a fixture at FramerDave’s, a shop owned by Dave Imbraguglio, his friend since childhood. The shop is his de facto studio, where he’s typically in a corner painting most weekdays. The walls are covered with his work, hundreds of his paintings, an eye-popping mural drenched in primary colors.
The subject matter is mostly Black folks living country life on plantations in the rural South. There are scenes of church suppers, family life, a boucherie. Big Mama—a large, round woman in a headwrap—shows up a lot, captured hanging clothes, cooking, taking a bath standing in a galvanized tub. He paints contemporary scenes, too, of things he’s seen, like a young Black man getting arrested and folks lined up at the Whitney Bank.
He’s never taken an art lesson, instead learning his brushwork by watching The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. “I was always drawing, since I was 3,” says Alvin. He’d buy art supplies from the local Ben Franklin, which was owned by Dave’s parents. Before long, he had a spot there to paint, unhurriedly going about his work despite drawing an audience. It’s something he still does at FramerDave’s, providing visual performance art in his quiet manner for shoppers and visitors.
When it’s time to take a break, Alvin wanders around the corner to have lunch at the Grapevine Café. He usually starts with the fried eggplant pinwheels with cream sauce. He loves the crab cakes, served drizzled with garlic aïoli.
