Stephen Cefalo
When did you realize you wanted to make art seriously? When I was about five or six my parents owned an Italian restaurant in New Jersey, and I would sit in the kitchen all day drawing E.T., Pegasus, Dragons, He-Man, and karate guys. I couldn’t wait to impress the cooks and waitresses passing through, and began selling my first drawings this way.
I knew straight away and
without question that this was what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
Who are your biggest creative influences? I can’t get over Titian, Caravaggio and the “Carravaggisti” such as Giovanni Baglione, Artemesia Gentileschi, and Bartolomeo Manfredi. I love Rubens. The turn of the century Symbolists are important to me as are the naturalists. There are SOOOO many painters I could talk about. As for other visual influences I find inspiration in films by directors like Ingmar Bergman and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
If you could choose one person in your life that you feel understands your work and supports you more than anyone, who would that be? This would without a doubt be my wife, Amy. She is not an “art” person, and is not easily moved by squiggly lines and pretty colors. That means I have to work hard to impress her, and when she falls in love with a piece I know I have done something good. She helps to organize my life in a way that it makes it possible for me to achieve my goals.
Do you have other artists in your family? I come from a long line of farmers and factory workers. My Aunt Marilyn is a remarkable draftsman, sculptor, and painter, and worked on her art during her days off from the aluminum plant. I still can’t believe her talent, even after all I’ve learned. My 8-year-old Daughter Livia will surpass me as a painter, so look out for that name- “Livia Cefalo”.
As an artist, how would you define success? Success to me would mean being a part of the great legacy of painting. If my work is treasured centuries from now, and continues to inspire wonder in painters and lay people, then I’ve been a successful painter.
Would you say your artistic style found you, or you found it? I have always believed that style is something that comes when you’re not looking for it. It must be a natural outgrowth of your experience. I look at everything good and try to be everyone else, and what comes out is a “style” that people recognize somehow as mine. Amazing really.
www.poetsandartists.com
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