SPANISH ARTIST FLORENCIA CLEMENT REWROTE HER STORY THROUGH ART

In 2017, Florencia Clement de Grandprey found out her ex-husband had seven children with three different women and eight grandchildren — and he was still legally married to someone else. She spent that Valentine's Day wretched until she started receiving hundreds of Facebook messages and more than 1,000 friend requests.

"A month earlier, I posted my mixedmedia portrait of Michelle [Obama]," Clement de Grandprey tells New Times. "

That day, the Obama's revealed their official Smithsonian portraits to the world, and thousands of people went back to my Michelle post. They were now reaching out, sending beautiful messages, and I wanted to continue to share art."

Her mixed-media painting of the former first lady received more than 78,000 likes and 57,000 shares. She also gained 4,000 followers that day and over a thousand comments.

Born and raised in southern Spain, Clement de Grandprey is the daughter of an American mother and a French-Italian father. The now-50-year-old worked as a tour guide in Spain, an English tutor in Italy, and an airline pilot in the United Kingdom. After 9/11, she was let go of her job and found herself living and working in Fort Lauderdale, where she worked as an interior designer.