While Geoffrey Gersten has taken a contemporarily unconventional path to fine art, his transition from engineer to oil painter recalls the careers of the old masters. When a chance encounter with copper plate etchings led him to re-imagine technical drawing as art, he abandoned his career as a draftsman and spent the next ten years learning to paint. His work is steeped in nostalgia, using vintage black and white photographs and Old Hollywood film stills as reference materials for his exquisitely executed portraits. Typographic accents and strategic bursts of color define his unique style and bring his work into the present day, but a lingering desire for the ever-elusive past still hums in the background of each of his paintings.