We received a bunch of really cool pictures from our friend Christian last week. He has one of the most eclectic and extensive Fazzino collections we’ve ever seen. He has some of my most unique pieces and has come up with some amazing ways to display them – custom pedestals, reflective surfaces, and spectacular lighting.
He was kind enough to shoot some of the pieces he owns, in their displays. The shots below are all from his collection, guess which one is not the Fazzino 
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I often like to feature the artwork of artists I meet during my travels on this blog. While I was in Austin a few months ago, doing the show with Michael Godard at The Russell Collection Gallery. I met Jenny Meyer, an aspiring artist and collector. She told me about her work and later emailed me some images. I find her work very interesting…she has a great sense of movement and her compositions are thought-provoking and colorful. I like her palette very much. The images I’m showing here are from a new collection she is working on. Here is a description in her own words.
“During the weekend of “Art City Austin,” I met Charles when I went to see his show at the Russell Collection Gallery in Austin. I was really drawn to the style of his work, the 3D element in his pieces, and his use of color. It was one of the best shows I’ve seen in Austin. Charles was very kind in taking the time to discuss various art ventures with me.
I have a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I studied in the Advanced Painting department. I now work out of Austin, but my hopes as an artist, are to have my paintings exhibited in prestigious galleries around the world, along with a great fan base and consistent collectors.
My style of work is considered abstract, modern, pop art. My influences come from different forms of entertainment, such as games, toys, and cartoons. I enjoy taking existing forms from popular culture, and abstracting them to create new and exciting shapes. My work is very optimistic, which is why I use bright colors. I hope my whimsical paintings are able to put my audience in a cheerful and inspire them to play.
I am working on a new series that is combining human and robot forms. The robots in this series represent technology. The concept behind this is that we have created technology and, in a way, it has kind of taken over our lives–and become us. So, these pieces are focusing on hybriding robot forms with humans. In a way, that mirrors our own lives, because we so heavily rely on technology now and take its usefulness for granted. I wanted to have a playful take on the idea, and approach it in a whimsical manner by my use of color and cartoon imagery, as to make it more light-hearted and approachable.”
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...I received this note from my friend Joseph earlier today. Thank you so much for the kind words!
Mr. Fazzino,
I recently purchased “Just A Cab Ride Cross Town” the deluxe edition, it is absolutely fantastic. Whenever I have company I purposely don’t point it out to people, I let the piece point itself out! It is truly a conversation starter. To see the look on the faces of people who may not be familiar with your work is priceless. I’ve been a fan of yours for quite some time now, I recently just got married (8 months ago) and after all the “hustle and bustle” of planning a wedding I was able to make my first Fazzino purchase. Aside from marrying the love of my life…it was the second best thing I’ve done!!!
I am often in JFK International Airport and recently just saw your mural for American Airlines…I WISH I HAD A WALL IN MY HOME BIG ENOUGH FOR IT!!!! It’s spectacular, I wanted to keep taking the escalator to make sure I didn’t miss an inch of it. I look forward to adding more pieces to my collection…I’ve got my eye on your NYC scenes popping out of the apple. Since I’m a native New Yorker those are the ones I lean towards.
Keep doing what you do. You’re a true artist in every sense of the word. What you do is unique, inspiring, entertaining, loud and most of all…beautiful!
Thank you very much!!!
Joseph
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...I’m not really a huge fan of minimalistic artwork. I don’t “get it” most of the time. But when my friend Steve Carrasco from Disney emailed me pictures of the Prada boutique sculpture he visited in the middle of nowhere in Marfa, Texas, i just HAD to share it. I think it’s amazing. They planted this completely biodegradeable, completely stocked, unmanned Prada store by Highway 90 and there is NOTHING else there. People pass by and do an immediate double take. There are literally thousands of comments all over the internet about people’s reactions to it. What a fantastic social commentary on consumerism and our capitalist culture … even in the middle of the desert, we MUST have our Prada. This is pop art at its best….turning our pop culture icons into artwork. It makes us think about ourselves and the context in which we live.
The sculpture was the brainchild of German artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset and was installed in 2005. It is made out of adobe and eventually, will slowly erode back into the earth from which it was created. Brilliant! Let me know if you ever have a chance to get out to see it in person.
Thanks Steve!
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...We recently received this email from our friend Rebecca….
Hello. As I recently told you, our school – Saugatuck Elementary in Westport, CT – does a program called ArtSmarts. The parents volunteer, pick an artist, and develop a project to be done in a similar style for their class. At the beginning of the project, the parents talk about the artist, his/her style, and explains how their project will be similar to the original artist. This year, we picked the theme of “Valentine’s Day” and the students used foam dots and duplicate pictures to create 3-D creations. They had a variety of items to use including traditional valentines, foam hearts, flat hearts, etc. And they used glitter and jewels to embellish at the end. It was great fun to see how each picture was so unique even with the same raw materials. It was a great success!
–Rebecca
Thanks, Rebecca for sending us these wonderful pictures…..love to see the kids exploring their artistic sides! Eventually, we will be running interactive educational art projects out of our new working studio…when it’s finished and ready…in a couple of months…so stay tuned for more info!
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...I met my new friend Robert during the installation of my first piece in American Airlines’s JFK Terminal 8 several months ago – he’s the head of security there. In talking, we found out that we both attended the School of Visual Arts and Robert’s still painting and creating art. I asked him to send me some of his work and recently, he did just that. I was so impressed and i wanted to share it with you.
I absolutely love the detail in his work and of course, the whimsical nature . His work is a bit more fanciful than mine but i think we have a lot in common. His sense of color and balance is fantastic and he has a great sense of design. I hope you enjoy it and i hope this blog encourages Robert to keep at it. Here are some of his own words:
As a little boy I enjoyed reading children’s picture books. I liked the Cat in the Hat, Caps for Sale, and the stories from Aesop’s fables. To this day, rainy days remind me it’s a good time for a picture book.
These images come from my desire to write children’s picture books.
The images move the storyline forward. I want to express in my stories and art the concept of freedom, self reliance, independence. The ducks are being freed from becoming dependent on others for their food. The Rumpus character, is freed from the need to take or use other peoples things. The human spirit will always yearn to be free. If I can develop meaningful stories around the concept of freedom.
I think children of all ages will understand and maybe even smile. Meeting Charles at JFK was great experience for me. We discovered we both went to the School of Visual Arts at the same time. Thank you Charles for letting me put these images on your blog. This artwork is now out in the world, free from the dark confines of my portfolio.
I will use this experience, to help set in motion a new creative spirit. A spirit that is humble and always thankful for the gift of being able to create an image and maybe even tell a story. I would love my craft of image making to sell, and be used for Picture books, Paintings, T-shirts, Prints, Posters, Calendars and any of the multitude of mediums, that need good visuals.
I need to take more action with my craft, because hope alone, will not create anything. I heard a good friend once say, “change your attitude and you’ll change your destiny”, I believe that. With the proper actions, maybe one day I’ll be free to earn my living from my craft.
(FYI as an aside, we’ve installed 5 or 6 of my works at Terminal 8 so far and i’m working on a huge 14′ mural that i plan to install in the next couple of months – so keep your eyes out for it!)
Thanks Robert,
–Charles
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...Tony Mendoza is my facebook friend. Last week, he sent me a link to a website of his artwork. He describes it as “primitive expressionistic pop art…” and i think that’s an accurate description. I love the balance and the design. It’s fun…it’s thoughful…it’s whimsical…it’s colorful and it’s definitely a unique look. The lines are distinctive and sharp…..and the collection as a whole is absolutely a social commentary on the Havana lifestyle – a reflection of Tony’s experiences and the experiences of so many others…the very definition of pop art!
I wanted to share it with all of you. Let me know what you think and I’ll pass your comments along to Tony! I think it’s FABULOUS work!
Enjoy,
-Charles
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...Mimi is …well…way more of an old friend than a collector! She’s the owner of Off the Wall Gallery in Houston, TX, one of my oldest and dearest authorized dealers. She has exhibited my 3D pop art for more than twenty years. She emailed this to me last week and i wanted to share it with all of you..the moral? Believe in the intrinsic value of art….let it move you…let it reflect your passion and your personality…and bring it into your life….for all the RIGHT reasons! That’s one thing i want to make clear…you buy it because you LOVE it…if it appreciates, you’re that much luckier! Thanks Mimi!
We owe our success to our clients and the trust they have allowed us to earn in their hearts, minds and spirits. It is an honor to be allowed to direct someone’s eye toward a certain artists work as well as introduce an artist to a new client for the first time. The connection a client, friend, and patron feels when they find a new artist or a new work is magical – sparks can and sometimes do fly!
New relationships are created that can never be undone. The question is who owns what? Is it the patron who purchases the artwork or is it the artwork that forever captivates the heart and soul of the patron. Who is to say what is held by whom or vice versa -Interesting topic of conversation.
Recently I purchased a sculpture by Mackenzie Thorpe. I should have kept “Life” when I first bought it for the gallery several years ago. It spoke to me. I wanted it but so did some of my clients …… and was I a collector or a dealer? Good question.
It turns out that I am both. Last week I was given another opportunity to own a copy of this sculpture “Life”, but this time at more than twice the original price. I bought it and I waited for it to arrive at the gallery. I anxiously opened the cardboard box that said “ Mimi- personal” on the top. As I opened the box and unwrapped the sculpture, I was thrilled. My sculpture no longer eluded me. I placed it on my desk to inspect it. Sometimes we just want things we can no longer have, or things we think we should have had. Not the case here—
This sculpture and its little saying on the base (“I who have nothing bring you my love so that you will grow in a world of hope”) made me smile as much today as it did the first time. It was not about the conquest or finding this elusive sculpture after all this time or even relearning the lesson of holding onto something that might be of value one day. It was the feeling of having a second chance and being given the opportunity to own something that still makes me happy after all these years-I welcomed that opportunity.
We all know the story of the antique that got away. Learn from this lesson and don’t repeat my mistake. We all work so hard, and life passes very quickly. Sometimes it’s better to spend the money that will forever put a smile on your face rather than invest another fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars in the stock market. Sometimes that small amount can multiply beyond our wildest dreams. There is a client that bought Andy Warhol’s “Howdy Doody” in 1981 for fifteen hundred dollars. Up until that time, it was the most expensive piece of art that I had ever sold. Today “Howdy Doody” is worth $60,000 -$75,000 00, depending on its condition and provenance. Imagine, a signed and numbered limited edition print. Imagine just one print of two hundred serigraphs becoming so valuable. What if you were that client who called me looking for “Howdy Doody” all those years ago. The smile it would have brought you all these years while you looked at one of your childhood hero’s? Maybe next time it will be you.
–Mimi Sperber-Wasserburg
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...I recently received an email from Stephanie:
This past Christmas my family and I received a Fazzino NYC puzzle from my aunt who works for Andrews + Blaine Ltd. (the company that produces all the awesome puzzles). I, being the puzzle do-er, scooped up the gift. 2,000 pieces was a lot of puzzle to take on, so I enlisted the help of my puzzle-happy friends. My friends and I graduated college in May ‘07 with two of us starting jobs in NYC and the other two taking graduate courses. It’s long been our dream to move into NYC together.
So how does a NYC apartment connect to a puzzle? Well, let me fill you in on the missing piece. Us Jersey girls would get together for “puzzle night” aka involving ice cream, tv, chatting and of course the Fazzino puzzle! Thus was born..the NYC apartment puzzle.
We would be in awe of the detail of Fazzino’s work. (My personal favorite being the people in a variety of acts in the apartment windows.) We would work together on different sections and tag team buildings. Then, the next day I would go into work in NYC and see the same building I was working on the night before. The puzzle and real life building were creepily identical. Even more, I’d be reading an article about a NYC building and only knew about that building from putting together my puzzle.
The puzzle brought together my friends, my knowledge of NYC, and my NYC sense of direction. My friends and I will hang the puzzle in our NYC apartment..now all we need is the apartment. Bring on more puzzles Andrews + Blaine Ltd.!!!!
Thanks again!!
Stephanie
Thanks Stephanie….Andrews & Blaine has done a fabulous job with my artwork. And for those who wan tto see the whole puzzle collection, visit Barnes and Noble online. There are even more designs coming out in the Fall.
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...I received an email from my attorney…ok…so he’s not “technically” a collector…but he sure has my work on his walls! He’s in Cleveland with his son and took a tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They came across the guitar i painted for “Guitarmania,” a public arts project sponsored by the Hall in Cleveland in 2003.
I remember getting the call from the Hall..they asked me to paint a seven-foot tall guitar. I said “huh?” thinking it was a joke…but within a week, i had this huge guitar sculpture in my studio. They said “paint whatever you want…” ….so i had some FUN and created what i called “Fazzinopalooza!” The guitar was shipped from my studio back to Cleveland where it was displayed, along with hundreds of others that were spread all over the city. In the end, the guitars were auctioned to raise funds for some very worthwhile charities – United Way and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame retained my guitar for permanent display and that’s where it sits.
Let me know if you ever see it there. I think from the looks of it, you’ll know how much fun i had painting it! Thanks for sharing the picture Josh!
–Charles
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