Michael DeSiano was so inspired by Monet, Matisse and Picasso that he gave up a promising engineering career for his passion for color. In addition his daughter, Rose DeSiano, introduced him to digital photography and he never looked back. “Rose opened my eyes to nontraditional ways to capture my subjects. She showed me that a photo doesn’t always have to be printed on paper.”
Michael’s one man show called Flora Interpretations is currently at the Italian American Museum that is located at 155 Mulberry Street, Manhattan, and is visible until February 26th. By hanging more than half a dozen of his floral works, with some slightly out of focus, he is demonstrating that colors subtlety blend among themselves in reality although our eyes normally look for sharp contrast between them. Thanks to his color blending we are introduced to a feeling that we are inside the floral arrangement even though the subject is photographed from the outside. You even get a sense that the subject moves with the wind as you move your eyes giving you a somewhat 3D effect. The exhibit is chiefly composed of works showing close ups of a wide variety of flowers of purple, yellow, green, pink and red hue. His photos are reworked with great expression.
Michael DeSiano Monet’s Palette (2017) Pigment on canvas 58 in x 86 in
You can see his connection to the masters. For example, his White Lavender on Canvas is reminiscent of Monet’s Banks of the Seine, Vétheuil (1880). His Rich Yellow and Red Tangled has the luminosity of Picasso’s Still Life with Glass Under the Lamp (1962). Like Picasso’s famous naps Michael mimics this behavior so that he can spend a full day being creative. All of his floral examples are strictly focusing on the subtleties of flower composition and colors and are therefore devoid of any other subject matter such as humans that would interfere with the feeling you get of being immersed in the floral arrangement. It is easy to spend several minutes standing in front of each photograph absorbing the beauty and composition of the color matrix.
Michael DeSiano White and Lavender on Green Field (2017) Pigment on canvas 58 in x 86 in
For Michael his art is therapeutic. “It helps me escape the everyday problems.” He does not include politics into his works. “I am more of a methodical artist than emotional,” although the vibrant colors of his work cannot help but give you an emotional response. His methodological approach is based on almost a decade of art research, exploration and teaching. “Impressionism, expressionism and abstraction drives the modern arts,” he feels.
Artist Michael DeSiano installation at the Italian American Museum. Photo by Don Rittner
Michael also uses the printed word to teach about his passion. His first book Principles and Elements of Art and Design (1993), which was geared for gifted high schoolers, is being followed up with a new e-book, ACT- Art Creativity and Thinking that will have over six hundreds images and quotes from the great masters along with exercises designed to stimulate, inspire, inform and advance. This latest work is his “labor of love” and certainly not his last creation as he continues to explore his passion for color.
– Justyna Kostek, NY Arts
