The artwork of Edwin Alverio, an adjunct lecturer in Spanish at Naugatuck Valley Community College, is on display in NVCC’s Ruth Ann Leever Atrium Gallery through November 4. On October 29, Alverio will discuss his paintings at a lecture presented by the College’s Visual and Performing Arts Department and sponsored by the Office of the President.

Alverio, who has been producing art since the age of eight, says each of the 10 pieces in the exhibit was inspired by his Puerto Rican heritage. “I tried to put something of Puerto Rico in each one of them—the importance of friendship, the importance of farming, the importance to work hard to be successful.”

Alverio says he finds inspiration for his art everywhere. “Anything that has a meaning… I just try to create something different and put a little of me [in it].”

In one of the works on display, Don Quixote Fighting The Windmills, Alverio offers a contemporary take on Miguel de Cervantes’ protagonist who famously tilts at windmills. “Don Quixote, at the beginning, was fighting with giants, so the giant never died, it just changed from one to another, so it’s now in the modern time,” says Alverio.

Alverio’s lecture, scheduled for 1 p.m. on October 29 in the Leever Atrium Gallery, is part of NVCC’s One Book, One College project, which is intended to serve as a catalyst for discussion of literature and other aspects of culture. The book selected to guide the dialogue this year is The House on Mango Street, a novel by Sandra Cisneros.