While researching a freelance article, I stumbled upon archived stories about my father’s gangland-style murder twenty years before. This inspired me to dig deeper into the story, and in doing so, look critically and emotionally into my own childhood. Painting The Invisible  Man chronicles my coming-of-age story through the eyes of a fictional character, Anna Matteo, who also discovers articles about her father’s Mafia murder. Both Anna and my story is one of a stolen childhood, a family torn apart by the violence of a Mafia life, and one young girl’s resilient spirit that allows her to rise above the hardships and seek solace in most unusual ways.