Spent my afternoon along Georgia Street in the Super Bowl Village and at the NFL Experience. I cannot believe how many people are out and about and it’s only Tuesday! I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like this weekend. The excitement is incredible. I also visited the Huddle and saw my Super Bowl collection hanging there. The Indianapolis Arts Council did a fabulous job decorating the space.

Don’t miss my interactive art workshop at The Huddle! Come join us on Friday from 12-2. We’re going to create a great piece of Super Bowl artwork….together! It’s free and open to the public, so c’mon down! We’ll be in the old Nordstrom’s store in the Circle Center Mall right off Georgia Street inside the Super Bowl Village.

See you there!

“I’m honored to continue the line of Olympic pins for NBC,” stated Charles Fazzino from his NY Studio. “Being an Olympic artist was a dream of mine since i was a kid. I knew i’d never be an Olympic athlete….but i aspired to be an Olympic artist. The relationship with NBC has been wonderful an I look forward to celebrating the Olympic Games with my artwork for years to come.”

A signing of Olympic pins in teh NBC Experience Store in New York City is being discussed. A final date for teh signing has yet to be determined.

Along with the pin, Fazzino has released both a poster print and a limited edition fine artwork for the London Olympic Games, both of which will also be sold at the NBC Experience Store or at any authorized Fazzino Art Gallery.

I was so happy to have the chance to participate in two projects last year in two Florida High Schools…Stranahan High School School and Fort Lauderdale High School. It was inspiring for me to work with so many talented and motivated students. Their enthusiasm for both projects was infectious and only served to bolster my goal of doing my part to help out. I have a few master classes scheduled in 2012 already and plan to further my Fazzino Arts Education Initiative as part of these projects. I will keep you posted, but in the meantime, please remember the arts…and do what you can to encourage our young people to never lose site of their creativity.

There were almost 100 of the most incredible Munch works i’d ever seen. Many of them were huge, mural-sized paintings and they looked beautiful in the galleries of the Centre Pompidou which are extremely airey, open and very modern in design. I couldn’t believe the number of self-portraits there were. Apparently, Munch painted himself hundreds of times over the course of his lifetime. It led me to wonder what kind of artist he was, being so fascinated with his own likeness. I’m not sure if that speaks to an egotistical streak or an insecure streak? Was he that proud of his own image or was he that determined to make sure nobody ever forgot what he looked like?

Then there were the images that he delved into over and over and over again – scenes like the sick child with the mother/grandmother looking over her. He used that image in many different paintings in many different sizes and using different forms and techniques. I’m guessing that he did so because it was a particularly popular image among his collectors and he needed to have many of them to make sure there was always one in his exhibitions. He was very popular and had many exhibitions going on at the same time. So, he repeated his strongest paintings and gave them multiple lives. I understand that as an artist. Sometimes you paint something that resonates with the audience. You get it just right and you want to use it again and again because it tells the story you want to tell again and again. I tend to repeat certain elements in my compositions; replicate the placements of certain buildings and how they relate to each other; particular traffic and bridge scenes. The just “work” and i want to use them more than once.

I also found it interesting that so much of Munch’s work has a dark and depressing feel to it. So much art about murder, sickness, and sadness. His dark palette was a big factor in creating that feeling. I sometimes wonder if that’s because he was Norwegian. It’s so dark and cold there for so much of the year. I wonder if his paintings reflect the depression you sometimes here about in environments like that. I find it particularly interesting because my work has recently found its way into Norway (thanks to the efforts of my distributor there, Olav Holm) and i find that there’s an unexpected love of color there. The people have brightly painted homes and they gravitate to the bright colors in my work – do different from Munch. I just find that particularly interesting.

There is a richness to the life and career of Edvard Munch that i believe anyone would find interesting. Take some time and visit with his artwork sometime, either on the internet or at an exhibition. I highly recommend it.

I’m grateful to NAMOS for hosting the reception and to all those who attended. We had a wonderful time. Not only did people have the chance to sneak-preview the Super Bowl XLVI art collection, but they also took in NAMOS’s current featured exhibition – The Football Invitational – a collection of football-related artwork by more than fifty artists. If you’re a football fan, I highly recommend it.

I’m really looking forward to coming back for Super Bowl week. I’ll be at the NFL Experience and also at The Taste of the NFL….and who knows where else?! Hope to see you there!

Contact your favorite authorized Fazzino Gallery for more information or email us and we’ll point you in the right direction.