I am frequently asked how I became an artist. The truth is that I tried for many years to be something else.

I have never gone to art school. I was born in Italy and art was all around me. I loved to draw ever since I could hold a pencil. Later on, an uncle introduced me to photography and I was entranced by the new medium. I loved holding a camera and being in a dark room, but I went to university thinking I would become a lawyer instead.

That did not last long. I discovered I was more interested in traveling the world. Soon enough, I landed in the United States and worked around construction and architecture. Eventually, I decided it was time to end the gap years and to get a degree. After relocating to New York City, I received a PhD in Neuroscience and applied myself to teaching college biology while doing medical research. However, I never felt as satisfied as I did when I sat having my lunch on the floor housing the Art Department, sitting among student projects and bright colored canvases. Often, I would look at the class catalogue and dreamt about joining an art course. Maybe even get an art degree. Every time lunch ended, I found myself back in the usual classroom. Dreams forgotten.

The years passed and time arrived for me to take a sabbatical. This is a time when a professor takes up to a whole year off, continuing his education without leaving his job. How would I use the time? Well, before I knew it, I had bought a new camera and I was off on NYC streets clicking away. Photography led me to studying light, thus to drawing once again, and to roaming into an art supplies store. By chance, a former student of mine was working there and he spent the next hour showing me around pencils and brushes and palette knives. He taught me about paints and color palettes with such passion that I was hooked. I took my bag of supplies home and told my lover I was going to set up an art studio right in the middle of our loft. She quickly supported the idea of living in an artist loft and she even loved my first painting. Although I did return to teaching, the brushes and cameras were too strong a draw. I started selling my artwork to friends and family. I participated in some fairs and the word began spreading. A short time later art won and I became a full time artist.

I believe I became an artist because I always was an artist. Everything I have done and experienced was through an artist’s eye. I took a long and winding road both because I did not know better or believed better, and because I was led by my curiosity for new experiences. I still have not gone to art school. I still live and work in a Chelsea loft with my lover and children. Curiosity still leads the way. Except, whether it is by the stroke of brushes or the click of a camera, I now simply choose to support and express those experiences and emotions.