Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Granato.
Anthony, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Well, it all started when I moved from Utah (no, I’m not a Mormon, no I don’t have sister-wives, and no I don’t eat Jello casserole… that usually covers the first three questions) to Portland, OR to attend art college. After several years of living in Portland, I moved back to Utah to help-out my family. I worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer in both Oregon and Utah… but after a couple of years in the illustration field, I decided to break into the fine art industry. It was mostly a rewarding experience! I quickly became known locally and was showing my work in galleries in Salt Lake City and in Park City as well as arts festivals and Comic Cons. Later, I was showing in galleries in Portland, Tennessee, and New York.
After several years, I decided I needed a change of scenery and wanted to trade-in mountains and snow for oceans and warm weather. So, in late 2016, I made a bold decision to explore parts of the US that I haven’t seen! I meandered through the country and ran into St. Augustine… I fell in love with the area! However, I chose Gainesville because it’s close to St. Augustine but had a more progressive art culture and there’s more to do outside of eating, drinking, and beaching. I’ve been enjoying exploring all that Florida has to offer ever since!
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The process in which I create my art is much like developing a riddle… start with the answer and work backwards. I begin with the final product then figure out how to make it happen. My work has gone through a few progressions over the years, but what has always resonated with me is the mixed media style. I’ll take elements of drawing, painting, photography, digital, and 3-D media and merge them into one cohesive image. However, the majority of my work is painting in oils. Also, what’s unique about my work is that I make my paintings to fit antique and vintage frames. I have a large collection of frames that I have scavenged over the years and I refurbish them to showcase my paintings. My friends and family say that the frames “speak” to me… they are a source of inspiration for my imagery, composition, and color schemes.
On a conceptional level for my imagery, social commentary has been an interest of mine for quite some time. Whether it be movies, books, music or other artistic media, all have a resounding effect on my work. The messages in my paintings are visual metaphors for my experiences in modern life. All of my work has social messages woven into the concept and visual structure of the images.
Dichotomies are especially important to the foundation of my work. Old and new, beautiful and ugly or good and evil all get fused physically and conceptually in my pieces. My latest endeavor in pushing the envelope with my work is taking my frames and mixed media paintings and fusing them with animal skulls. I’ll find domestic and exotic animal skulls and hand-paint them, metal leaf them, and then patina the metal leaf. After I’m finished with the skull I’ll mount it on one of my framed paintings. It has been quite the satisfying process! I’m super jazzed about the final product!
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Absolutely! Always follow your gut and listen to your inner voice! It will never steer you wrong. Also, if you want to make an actual living as an artist, you need to be 1/3 artist, 1/3 business tycoon, and 1/3 marketing director. Solely creating art won’t cut it. It’s very rare that someone will just get “discovered”. You’ve got to be a one-person-army. Give it your all; be a brilliant artist, be a sound business person, and be a social media dynamo. That is the key to success in the art world.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Right now, most of my work is in galleries on the West Coast. I’ve been working hard to create new bodies of work to show in the Florida and Georgia markets. I should be having a couple of shows in these areas early next year. However, my entire inventory can always be viewed online at: www.anthonygranato.com. In addition to art on my website, I also have prints, reusable bags, event dates, and other goodies to peruse!
Contact Info:
- Address: PO Box 1596 Alachua, FL 32616-1596
- Website: anthonygranato.com
- Phone: 801-550-5531
- Email: ag@anthonygranato.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonygranato/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthonygranatoart/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/granato23
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/anthonygranato
Image Credit:
Anthony Granato
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