Welcome to the eighth day of Meylah’s Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway! On the eighth day of Christmas, Meylah is pleased to feature Ricco diStefano, a very talented and multifaceted person. His artwork shows passion, inspiration and truly a person who can articulate his thoughts on the canvas. A great example of this is in his book “Of Dreams & Shadows”. He comes from a family of artists and musicians and has had many years of experience working as an art director.
His talents are not just limited to art as he is also a great actor. Having created a successful brand and mark in the art world, he is leveraging his success to help his community with his involvement at artEAST as a board member and a coach. He is truly an inspiration to the many artists in and around Seattle. It is with great pleasure that we introduce Ricco and we hope you are as inspired as we are!
Meylah: Ricco, how do you balance such an active life filled with creating artwork, actively participating with artEAST and being a leader in your community?
Ricco: I live and breathe art. So since it is a part of me down to my soul, I find it natural. I just have a drive to be involved and like to put in long hours. It’s easy to find the energy if you follow your passion. But sometimes it’s hard to get started on a project and taking that first step often unleashes the inspiration that seams hard to muster. Like the Nike ad says “Just Do It”.
Meylah: What are some of the secrets to being successful with promoting your art online?
Ricco: Good quality images are key and having searchable tags on every image as well. I am now taking advantage of the social networking sites and find they help spread the word very well. Also, a simple and elegant website is imperative and being consistent with your message is important too.
Meylah: You are well established and a successful artist, so how do you learn or improve your artwork? What is your inspiration?
Ricco: The best way to improve for me is to just keep creating. A week never goes by that I’m not in the studio experimenting and pushing myself. The more art I produce the more I want to produce. All artists inspire me from the great masters and their stories of surmounting great obstacles to the teenager in my art class who dives in with no fear and discovers their creative spirit. But my greatest inspiration was my grandfather, a multi-talented man who lived an incredibly creative and productive life.
Meylah: Where can we find you teaching classes in the local community?
Ricco: I teach privately in my studio in Kirkland and at both the Museo Art Academy and artEAST studios in Issaquah.
Thank you Ricco! Today, he has generously donated a beautiful painting called “heart of glass.” To be eligible to win this painting today, please leave a comment on how you would like to see paintings like “heart of glass” displayed in groups and let Ricco know if he should incorporate messages into them or leave them without words?
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10 Comments
I’d say to just cluster particular paintings together or even layer them. I personally wouldn’t use words very often. That limits the interpretations that can be made.
The heart painting is very exciting and visually strong.
Ricco,
You have touched our lives in a very postive way. Our family will be your life long fan of you. I personally want to thank you so much for helping chirag to be an vibrant artist. He is bold and tenacious artist because of your encouragement. He looks up to you and your creativity.
I would showcase “Heart of Glass” to share special thanks to my parents and family who are helping me create experience. It depicts, life is made of great experiences. Heart of Glass says enjoy every moment you have. Sip slowly and relish every moment.
Thanks for sharing.
Ricco – I like the texture and colors of the Heart of Glass painting. I think grouping paintings like this in blocks with some upside down or on their sides would be visually interesting. You could also use interesting hardware to hang them in a row from a rod or attach several to a larger canvas. As much as I love words, I’d suggest leaving them off; however, if words are added, I would make them fairly obscure so they are not the focal point of the painting.
I loved the “heart of glass.” For me, it signified pure, unconditional love (glass depicting transparency) and the best place to showcase this is in International conferences where people with diverse backgrounds congregate.
My vote is to have no messages incorporated in the art work as it will remove the “mystery” in the art work. However uncomfortable it makes me feel, I enjoy the joy in interpreting what the message of the artwork is and words will remove that joy :)
Have a great evening.
Best,
Rajesh
Hi, What a talented and multi-faceted person!
His paintings seem to draw me into them. They
invoke a sense of my childhood and deju view
in my soul. His paintings can stand alone or would work well in small groupings! I would be honored to own a piece of his art. Many thanks, Cindi
I LOVE the “heart of glass” painting! I’m rather pedestrian when it comes to displaying art. My preference is to only have one painting alone on a wall so that you can focus just on it. If I do group artwork, I like to keep the pieces in the same color range or the same subject ie: landscapes. I agree with the majority in being against including words in the paintings. If I were to win this painting, I would be torn between keeping it or giving it to my daughter or granddaughter, both of whom are artists. Thanks for a chance at the giveaway.
Ricco certainly has wonderful artwork – very intense and contrasting works. What I really liked was his response to the “What inspires you?” question. I love that he wants to create more art because he is creating! that is the statement of a truly creative soul :) Merry Christmas Ricco!
-Andi
Hi Ricco- I’ll be the direct opposite of some of the other comments I read! I agree that leaving words out makes it easier for others to give their own interpretation. However, I also think puting words or ‘messages’ in is a great sales technique. (We do have to sell things of course!) Messages are very popular these days. And for people who appreciate art but don’t have the artistic inclination to make their own interpretations- they may really enjoy messages.