KELLY FARRELL / Staff

Angelo Martinez, 24, proposes to Nicole Signorella, 22, at the Blue Mangrove Gallery on North Collier Boulevard in front of an oil painting of the couple's first kiss by local artist Tara O'Neill. Martinez and Signorella vacationed at a family home on Marco Island last week and returned to their homes in New Jersey after a surprise wedding announcement with the help of O'Neill and the gallery.

KELLY FARRELL / Staff

Nicole Signorella, 22, is shocked to see an oil painting in a Marco Island art gallery that resembles her first kiss with Angelo Martinez on a park bench in New Jersey. The commissioned painting by artist Tara O'Neill was part of a surprise wedding proposal by Martinez before being deployed by the U.S. Army to Iraq this summer.

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A New Jersey couple vacationing on Marco Island proved that wedding proposals can not only be surprising, but artistic.

Army solider Angelo Martinez, 24, and Nicole Signorella, 22, were vacationing on Marco Island last week in order to spend some time together before he is deployed to Iraq.

Martinez said he had been thinking about how to “pop the question” for some time, and finally an idea struck him.

“I had been Googling and surfing the Internet for unique ways to propose. Finally, I had an idea ... When we were at the park and first kissed, I would have proposed to her then, but we weren’t ready yet,” Martinez said.

On April 25, he began calling Marco Island art galleries looking for an artist who would let him commission a painting of that moment when he first wanted to propose. He needed it to be completed in less than a week before the couple planned to return home. The painting was crucial to creating a unique and romantic wedding proposal for his girlfriend of two years, Signorella.

Christie Marcoplos, owner of Blue Mangrove Gallery on North Collier Boulevard received a call from Martinez and suggested he contact local artist Tara O’Neill for the job.

O’Neill said she was going to have to turn the love-struck Martinez down because at this point in the week, she would only have two days to complete a painting. O’Neill also tends bar in the evenings at the Little Bar in Goodland.

Martinez requested an oil painting of the park in New Jersey where he and Signorella first kissed. He never met O’Neill nor had he seen her work.

He requested the painting be of the couple sitting on a park bench, his arm around her shoulder and a flower in her hair -– a flower like the one he picked for her two years ago when they first began dating.

Enjoying the couple’s story, O’Neill decided to take on the task.

Martinez sent a picture of the couple and a picture of the park to O’Neill in an email and two days later it was hanging in the Blue Mangrove Gallery – waiting for Signorella to eventually be surprised to see the painting of herself, boyfriend and their special place hanging in an island gallery a thousand miles from home.

The wooden-framed oil painting hung near a back corner in the Blue Mangrove Gallery last Thursday and Marcoplos waited for the couple to come in mirroring the young couple in the portrait.

“I’m so excited. I’ve never even met them yet, only talked to them on the phone,” she said.

Martinez and Signorella planned to go the beach that Thursday afternoon. Martinez asked Signorella if she would like to stop at the gallery on the way to the beach in order to pick up a souvenir for Signorella’s mother. Luckily for the plan, Signorella said “sure.”

The young couple perused the gallery and finally, Signorella spotted the painting. They looked at it at for a moment and then Signorella recognized something about the tree and lamp posts.

“It looks just like the park I run in every day,” she said.

Martinez told Signorella it was indeed Mindowaskin Park in the suburban town of Westfield, N.J. He pointed to the couple on the park bench, showing Signorella the details that only the couple would know and recognize, including his uniform – the U.S. army cap and the American flag emblem on his right shoulder.

As Signorella’s mouth dropped in surprise, Martinez descended on one knee. As he asked if she would marry him, tears began to fall, she held her hand over her heart, smiled and said, “of course.”

O’Neill decided to donate the painting to the couple, turning down the money the young Army soldier offered her later Thursday evening as she finished a bartending shift at the Little Bar.

The couple looked at the back of the painting to find a personal note from the artist: “A moment can last an eternity. Peace and love, Tara.”