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The highly regarded portrait and landscape artist Vincent Crotty has shared his talents with the Dorchester community since settling down in the neighborhood in the 1990s, and this summer has been no exception.
For the last month, Crotty, a native of Kanturk, Co. Cork, has split his time between Adams Village and the Neponset River Greenway, working on projects that will add color and character to the neighborhood. But he’s not doing it alone.
In his work helping to beautify the Neponset River Greenway Trail, Crotty has invited community members to join in on the fun. “It’s been an amazing experience working with volunteers that show up,” he says. “Some of them have zero talent, some of them have loads of talent [but] they don’t need talent. I’ll draw out shapes with a huge brush, and I mix the colors and they just fill in the shape.”
Team Crotty has already worked on murals along the trail and are currently creating a new one by the Butler Street trolley stop.
“We started my mural four weeks ago,” said Crotty. “It’s a triptych, which means three murals. The central mural is 45 feet wide by 9 feet tall in this tunnel that goes beneath the trolley on the bike path. There’s a 22-foot by 9-foot extra landscape on each side, all salt marsh, all sharing the same water level.” The mural honors the beauty of the salt marsh and local flora and fauna, featuring coyotes, foxes, and chipmunks,” he noted.
“Even on the first day I was amazed by the amount that got done,” he added. “All these different people ranging from three year olds who show up with their parents begging to paint, and we put them to work. There are people in their 80s and every age in between. It has been amazing to see how much gets done.”
In the middle of that group is Crotty’s summer intern, 24-year-old Joshua King, whom he calls his “right-hand man.” He said he’s passionate about passing his skills down to the next generation of artists.
“I became a teacher at Mass Art three years ago. I don’t have kids, but once I started teaching, all these artistic young people came into my life, and it has been a complete revelation to me,” he told The Reporter.
“The talents and the enthusiasm of these people who are 40 years younger than I am – they’re great company, and I feel like this is a great place to give people an outlet for their talent.
“I’ve a lot of optimistic feelings about painting, and I’m trying to teach old-style things I learned in the trade school,” he said. “Time passes very quickly. I’m 61, and I’m trying to teach sign painting and decorative painting and all that stuff to younger people while I can because people did that for me when I was 22 and it completely changed my life.”
“Right-hand man” King has also joined Crotty on his second big summer project: transforming the former Scobies in Adams Village into Session House, an Irish pub that will focus on live music run by Frank Delaney, owner of the Broadside Tavern, who said that Crotty is the only person who could bring his vision for the new space to life.
Frank Delaney, left, with Vincent Crotty inside what will be Session House in Adams Village. Cassidy McNeeley photo
Delaney imagines a dark, music-centric restaurant, and while the musicians will bring the sound, it’s up to Crotty to curate the perfect environment.
“Vincent is a master at what he does,” said Delaney, who has worked with Crotty for more than 35 years. “He’s just brilliant at what he does. For me, it’s just throwing out ideas; he has that ability to take a dream and put it on canvas.”
In this case, the canvas just happens to be an entire restaurant setting, with plans to open in mid-October. And once again, Crotty isn’t working alone. In addition to King, he has the help of recent Massachusetts College of Art and Design graduate Yanelis Ortiz, 22, and her boyfriend, Eddie Vargas.
“I started working with Vincent two years ago at the Irish Pastoral Centre. He wasn’t even my teacher; it was through a friend that I met Vincent, and I’ve just kept working with him,” said Ortiz
Notes Crotty: “I need their opinions. Yanelis has her art degree, Joshua is close. “I’m trying to replicate what happened to me when I was 22.
“ I went to trade school, just for a year, and it changed my life. I was a factory worker, and I was miserable. All of a sudden, this guy got me into trade school to learn sign painting, wood graining, and painting techniques, and it gave me enough confidence.
“After a year of that, I was able to make a living without getting a job. I never wanted a job again. Obviously, I had to work, but I wanted my work to be creative and involving paint.”
Now, through local projects, Crotty is showing young artists they can do the same.
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
