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DISAPPROVING? 'La Donna,' oil on maple, 18 x 24, 2010. With 'La Donna' ('Woman') as with all her paintings, Dina Pizzarello asks questions to the observer like, 'What lies beneath?' (Courtesy of Joe Pizzarello)
The journey of the artist Dina Pizzarello began at an early age. Her mother Anne Marie was a kindergarten teacher and watercolor artist, father Joe a jeweler and photographer. Their home was always filled with art books and artist's materials. Dina would spend hours poring over these books trying to reproduce what she saw.
In middle school Dina studied oil painting at a neighborhood studio. Until then, art was for Dina still a hobby. Once Dina started high school, her true artistry began to take flight. Dina met her future mentor, an art teacher named Mr. Bellinger, on her first day of class. While she was attending Fontbonne Hall Academy, he became her guide and inspiration through the world of art. She lived every week for his classes, and quoting Dina, "No one teacher, like Mr. Bellinger, has affected my life so greatly."
When Dina graduated from high school, instead of having a party, the family took her on a Mediterranean vacation. One of the stops was Venice, Italy, where her love affair with masks began. Dina was elated to purchase her first Medico Della Peste mask (the plague doctor) while on the trip.
WITHOUT A MASK: The young artist Dina Pizzarello, who takes inspiration from Venetian masks, is posing in the swimming pool. (Courtesy of Joe Pizzarello)
With its long beak, Dina feels it is one of the most bizarre and recognizable of the Venetian style masks. After returning to New York from the trip, she began college studies at the School of Visual Arts and majored in Illustration. Soon she found her inspiration in the fine arts–etching and figurative painting. In her early college years she drew much inspiration from her Medico Della Peste mask and used it in many different projects. Even though Dina bent assignments to fit her inspiration, she always felt there was something even more interesting, beautiful, and expressive that she could create.
Now, at the age of 27, Dina is a professional artist, "I have fully submitted to my infatuation and have been working on and exhibiting my Masked series since 2005." After purchasing her first Medico Della Peste mask she began fanatically collecting different masks from every corner of the globe. Recently, she has started incorporating more exotic masks into her work alongside the Venetians.
Art has always been her easiest means of expression and dissection. She takes her cue from the old masters such as Caravaggio, particularly by showing the play of light and shadow over forms.
LET IT BE: 'Lascia Stare,' oil on maple, 56 x 40, 2007, cropping. To Pizzarello painting is philosophizing about life like in 'Lascia Stare' ('Let It Be'). (Courtesy of Joe Pizzarello)
However, her art is not only about what is depicted but also what is not. Dina says: "What lies beneath? What comes from the outside to make the image? Why this feeling?—My paintings ask the question 'Why?' in every way possible, in every context. Why this position? Why this color? Why this space?" Her clues are the asking, not the answer. She is inspired mostly by elegance and ugliness. These things set her mind spinning to no end. A feeling or a short glimpse, a fraction of a thought will lead her to a mask, a pose, or a composition. They let her mind unlock what it wants to capture.
Dina sits every day and slashes away at her work to understand, not just what she is making happen, but everything: light, emotion, architecture, love, darkness, people, construction of the organic and the synthetic, life, landscape, hate … Painting for Dina is philosophizing on existence—breaking it down, and building it back up. She feels that is why she can push through the work process to create her art.
New York is a scary, supercharged place, where beautiful discoveries happen constantly, and people are fueled to create. "It feeds me," Dina says. "It does not let my mind rest for a moment. New York is like my art, always bending my mind back to it, greedy for my immediate consideration. It is asking always, while insisting on capturing my attention. I paint every day, because the beauty of here makes me, and so I am content."
Pizzarello's debut exhibition took place at the Caelum Gallery in Manhattan. From there, she branched out and started showing in Miami, where she began a long and successful career at Art Fusion Gallery. In 2008, she represented the United States in the Emaar International Art Symposium in Dubai.
LONGING FOR LIGHT: 'Luce,' 30 x 35, oil on maple, 2008. Inspired by old masters like Caravaggio, Pizzarello works with strong contrasts of light and shadow-as seen in this painting entitled 'Luce' ('Light'). (Courtesy of Joe Pizzarello)
There, she worked among fellow artists and sculptors drawn from all over the world. After two weeks of painting in the desert, she won first prize for her works. It was one of the most enriching experiences in Dina's life. After returning home she continued exhibiting in the Northeast and in Athens, Greece. Dina teaches drawing at La Guardia College in New York.
Pizzarello will be exhibiting at Art Fusion Gallery in the Miami Design District, and at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut, in January 2011. You may view Dina's art online at dinapizzarello.com .
Harold Leighton, hairdresser and photographer, wrote in the sixties about fashion for trade journals, and for the British Hampstead and Highgate Express. His career as a photographer includes sessions with world-known artists and celebrities like Pablo Picasso, Romero Britto, Roger Daltrey, and Julian Lenon. Harold Leighton describes himself as a very lucky and humble person, who has been around artistic people from an early age.
