Behind the Art: Art in the Alley sax player memorializes its creator

Editor’s note: Behind the Art is a recurring series highlighting artistic works throughout the county.

The late Demetre Josebeck used himself as a model for his painting of a saxophone player in Art in the Alley in downtown Greensburg.

The work was one of the first pieces created for the public art project launched in 2018 by the Westmoreland Cultural Trust in the alley adjacent to The Palace Theatre.

“He wanted to pick out a spot that had meaning and do something that made sense,” said his mother Toni Antonucci, director of advancement and development at Westmoreland Community Action.

He found the perfect spot under a light on the side of The Palace and called on his own musical roots for his subject matter.

“When he saw that light, all he could think of were the vintage images, probably from the ’20s or’ 30s, of a saxophone player under a lamp post,” she said. Josebeck had been a saxophone player in elementary school, later taking up guitar and drums.

Josebeck’s friend Travis Ries helped to create the painting.

Josebeck struggled with substance use and succumbed to an accidental overdose in 2018 at age 26, but he used his own experiences and his love of art to educate and encourage others.

He founded Art for Recovery and Transformation, an organization that hosted exhibits by artists who were in recovery and art-making events to spread awareness of substance use issues.

“He wanted to effect change in the general community and have a positive influence on the substance use and recovery community,” Antonucci said.

Josebeck’s artistic interests and talents were varied. He also wrote poetry and built guitars.

“Artistic expression was therapeutic for him. You can see that his artwork really gets to what he was feeling,” Antonucci said.

She encouraged her son’s talents from an early age.

“Art was always something I did,” she said. “We moved a lot, so I always painted murals on the walls of our homes. He would help me paint as soon as he could hold a paintbrush.”

Josebeck had a degree in photography from Westmoreland County Community College, where he also took fine art classes, taught other students how to build frames for their canvases and made cards and other items on a letterpress that was donated to the school.

Five years or so after Josebeck created his saxophone player, the painting still has a place in the hearts of family and friends.

“Every once in a while, someone will walk through the alley and go over and take a picture, and send me their selfies with it,” Antonucci said. “It’s heartwarming, it’s touching; but anytime I see it, it also tugs at my heart strings in both a good and a bad way.

“I think about, what could he have been and what is he missing?”