Paul Spadone
Statement
Question: Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?
Answer: All of the Above. None of the Above.
My recent work is based on direct observation of the human figure, plant and animal forms, the urban landscape and decorative architectural motifs. Through the process of painting and drawing, erasure and revision, collage, and the layering of one image atop another, the initial subjects have undergone transformations and mutations. Some have become hybrids…monsters cobbled together in the Frankenstein’s laboratory of my mind. Others might suggest environments -- forests, caves, coral reefs, garbage heaps, a crowded subway car. I consider the final images to be like Rorschach tests, —they welcome a range of associations, but resist specific classification.
My older works exemplify my love of the fantastic and Baroque, and are products of my imagination. They evoke the realms of campy decadence, lurid spectacle, period fashion, and the inevitable collapse that accompanies excess.
Bio
I have recently returned to drawing and painting as a primary means of artistic expression, having worked extensively in the worlds of film, theater and television as a costume and set designer. I received my MFA from the Yale School of Drama and subsequently worked on the first three "Spider-Man" films, designed two productions for Disney Cruise Lines, assisted on the Broadway revival of "Little Shop of Horrors" and the Metropolitan Opera’s "The Great Gatsby", served as conceptual/scenic artist for "Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show", and designed regional theater productions in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington DC and Juneau, Alaska. I have also painted murals in private residences in Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston and Charlottesville. In May, 2013, I completed the Certificate Program at the New York Studio School. I currently live and work in Brooklyn, NY.