My compulsion to draw and use my hands traces back, quite literally, to the play-dough I manipulated as a young child. I was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in an Italian-American neighborhood of Knightsville in Cranston. I remember going to the library and discovering the art books–and falling in love with one about Surrealism and Dada.
When I was eleven, my parents divorced and my father’s new wife was sister to an artist. Alfred DeCredico was an established artist and teacher. He invited me to visit his freshman foundations drawing class at Rhode Island School of Design. That experience was a very important influence on my life as an artist.
Rather than college, I took an atypical path, working in landscaping and in warehouses and making art all along the way. I got an art education, however, working for 16 years as a glass sculpture fabricator and studio manager for Daniel Clayman and Linda Ross.
Providence has long had a dynamic art scene and it was one of its more innovative organizations that gave me my first show in 1998. AS220’s non-juried, uncensored forum gave me a chance to show my work to an art community. The positive feedback I received spurred me on my continued artistic journey.
Today, I’m a dad of two, and I continue to make drawings, paintings as well as sculpture. The play-dough has been replaced by clay and I’m planning to build a wood fired kiln so I can explore making new work in a new way with traditional methods.
New Show: Stochastic Duality