Barber combines hair cuts with his paintings

Jessi Flores has two seemingly disparate passions in life: cutting hair and painting abstract expressionist portraits.

He never thought of combining the two, until last year when the coronavirus pandemic forced him to temporarily close his Bellport barbershop last March.

Now his South Country Road emporium, Steel & Velvet, doubles as a showcase for the paintings he describes as "Expressionist, with a New York street style."

"I basically changed the whole paradigm of what a barbershop does," Flores, 42, said between customers. "I changed the whole way of doing it. … It looks more of a studio than a barbershop at all."

The self-taught artist said he had always kept his vocations separate, even after opening the shop in 2010. Then, like many business owners last year, Flores started to look at his life and work differently as the pandemic changed all the rules.

Flores said he had named his shop to reflect contradictory impulses — "man of steel, man of velvet," he said — and he needed to be both when he was forced to close.

"The pandemic really had my wheels turning, and I had to reinvent myself," Flores said. "I was closed three months and the fear of COVID kept people away."

Before the pandemic, he had a waiting area for customers. Since reopening in June, he has worked by appointment only.

But he was afraid he'd have to close a second time last fall amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases. So Flores renovated the shop and began using it as a studio. Now, where most barbershops would have photos displaying trendy hairstyles, Flores has a series of paintings he describes as "cyborg-ish futuristic self-portraits."

One client, Frank Cornacchiulo, 79, of East Patchogue, said he was shocked by the transformation when he returned to the place where he'd been getting his hair trimmed for 10 years.

"I didn’t expect it when I went there. … I thought he was going out of business and someone else had bought the place," Cornacchiulo said. "I said, this is unbelievable. I knew Jessi, but I didn’t know Jessi the man."

Flores said his paintings are inspired by memories from years ago, such as trips with his mother to horse farms, and public television specials that helped him to appreciate what he called "the majestic-ness of horses. … Since I’ve been painting them, I’ve been studying the anatomy of horses."

Other paintings are abstract portraits of humans. He said he liked to work with vibrant colors and created works that appeared to have "movement."

"A lot of it comes from the people that I meet," he said. "I speak to all kinds of people, I get it from a lot of my customers. … A lot of times it comes from childhood. If I channel something from my childhood, things from my past, that influences me greatly."

And the pictures, while connecting his job with his hobby, also help to fill some of the void of a mostly empty space.

"I’ve been told by clients," Flores said, "it doesn’t feel like we’re alone."

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.