Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man
The seed was planted sometime around 1956. A new box of Crayola crayons await the arrival of dinosaurs and Cowboys and Indians in mortal combat. Drawing is a way of knowing and a way of seeing. It has become a life time preoccupation.
My childhood was decorated with Picasso blue period posters. I remember Boy with a pipe, melancholic and startlingly present and magnetic. Perhaps my first artistic experience.
Making and taking pictures. The revelation of photography and the magic of the dark room. Immersion into the basement darkroom, a timeless place where we spent countless hours beginning to understand something about creating something from nothing.
As a teenager a more formal art education began. The quirky quintessentially New York Art Students League, Rhode Island School of Design, Boston University and The Cape School. The greatest teacher was NYC, the new Art capital of the world. MOMA the Met, the Frick and the galleries on 57th St. A great time and place to be a young art student.
Going back in time to Italy to understand where my heroes started. To build a foundation from which I could fly without breaking my wings.
Follow your bliss and doors will open. In the early 90’s I went to Japan. A new aesthetic and a new world. I found a great gallery in Tokyo and Toyama .Or should I say they
found me. It was an awakening and key moment in my life. It of course entered and changed my work
New Bedford Ma. The closest thing I will ever have to my dream studio. No car, no TV no smartphone, no Facebook. or social media. A time and place to concentrate on my work with peace of mind and few distractions
Art is a way of knowing the world and embracing it’s mysteries. A way of opening up and expanding, of becoming more than you were. A painting should have light and space as this is where its meaning exists and can be found and felt..
Hokusai
Since the age of 6 I have had a passion for drawing things. Now that I am 75 years I have finally learned something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fishes and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. By the time I am 89 I shall have made more progress. When I am 100 I shall be truly marvelous; and at 110 each dot and each line will process a life of its own
Donald Vaccino