Utah artist brings lost loved ones to life

LAYTON — Inside Pintura Fine Art in Layton, you'll find walls lined with picture frames.

Some are fancy, some are simple, others are made of wood and many of them are made of metal.

But for Darin Hoover, one frame stood out from all the rest. It didn't just hold a picture. It held a memory.

"Oh my gosh," Hoover said when he saw it for the first time. "That looks awesome."

The hand-drawn portrait was of his son, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, who was one of 13 American service members killed in the August 2021 attack at the Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"That was the actual physical last time that I saw him," Hoover said, recalling their final moments together.

The portrait was painted by JR Johansen, a Utah artist based in Huntsville known for creating lifelike paintings of people who have passed away, offering grieving families a way to feel closer to those they've lost.

"I've had so many experiences painting portraits that I know that they are still around," Johansen said. "They're not gone."

This connection to people he has never met, but whose stories he brings to canvas, is what drives Johansen to keep painting.

"To bring to life the pictures of our kids, of our loved ones, it is absolutely phenomenal," said Hoover.

Before Hoover walked in to receive his portrait, another family had just experienced the same emotional moment.

This time, it was for Deserae Turner, a Cache County teenager who survived a gunshot to the head in 2017, only to pass away last month after years of recovery.

Her family quietly unwrapped the painting and was amazed at how realistic the painting looked.

"This is just amazing. His work is wonderful. It's beautiful," said Matt Turner, who is Deserae's father. "You just look at it and go, oh, there's Des. So, that will be hanging in our home, and we can always look up and see that she's there."

Seeing those reactions, Johansen said, is what keeps him going.

"When I see the emotion that they're giving, I can tell it is meaningful to them," said Johansen. "This is my reward."

In a place where memories are carefully matted and framed, two Utah families found something that's more than a painting that hangs on a wall; it's a memory that stays in their hearts.

"It's beautiful, and he's done an awesome job," Hoover said.

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