Dennis D’Amelio
Lecturer, Humanities Department, Division for Academic Affairs
Lecturer, Humanities Department, Division for Academic Affairs
On December 16, 2011 I interviewed artist Dennis D'amelio in LaGuardia Community College's art area. D'amelio is a humanities professor of the college and upon my arrival he was teaching a painting class. I didn't interrupt him and just sat and watched him teach. I had had the professor for a form and structure class a few semesters back and related to his artistic and designer style. I saw this opportunity to interview him as a way to learn more about him and his work which I admire.
D'amelio was responsible for developing the Fine Arts - Design and Industrial Design majors. The first of these two was the one that appealed to me the most in the curriculum and the one I've pursued since enrolling at LaGuardia C.C.
He teaches courses like form and structure among other design and art studio courses.
Some classmates and I agree that Prof. D’amelio has a way with design and that is why he makes a great professor in this field because he has experienced design in different levels. His interests vary from architecture to painting to industrial design to prototype-making. He inclines towards organic shapes and allows his students to find inspirations from nature.
I expressed my interests in architecture to him and he advised me on the type of work Citi College (the college I’d like to attend) is looking for. Also on the work that might set me apart from the competition.
This professor is an inspiration to me and to his many design-inclined students.
Artist Interview Q & A:
How did you discover your love for art as a kid?
As a kid I built a lot of model airplanes. When I was 10 years old, I moved from Queens to Long Island and was very lucky that the school system out there was really good, you know. Being kind of a dweeb, I hung out in the art rooms and made friends with a lot of artists or art-type and it was one of the things that I was very good at. So you know they encouraged me to do that.
So not being a terribly confident kid it was my way of creating identity of having an identity. Later on when I was a teenager, I wasn’t too crazy about Long Island so I would go to the city and visit the museums and art galleries. Little did I know that eventually it would be history. Some of the artists back then turned out to be very famous. I was fascinated by this work.
What inspired you to make art?
I have had people point out that I have a real eye for detail. I have a way of pointing something and have begun to realize that I almost take in too much information that my fuzzy little brain……
If I didn’t have art to make order out of all the stuff I’m observing. I’d probably be crazy.
I chuckle.
It is the art that allows me to take this information and organize it.
Dou you work from life, photographs or imagination?
I work mostly from life although I use photographs to help, but I don’t really copy the photograph. Like right now I’m working on a still life and I take a photograph just so that if I knock it over I can rearrange it. Sometimes I like to look at it compositionally as a flat composition. I get so dizzy with all the details that sometimes looking at the photograph allows me to eliminate those things that I am looking at.
Overwhelming?
Overwhelming.
What techniques do you use?
Oil paint mostly, and I swivel a pencil.
Do you work on a schedule or when you’re inspired?
Inspired is an awkward term for me because sometimes even if I’m not in the mood I try to discipline myself. Depends on how crazy my life is. There are times when I don’t go to my studio at all or when I go to my studio all the time. So I don’t really have a schedule. I wish I could, but with school and family…..
Why is your work so neat?
Because, again, I am inclined to make order out of chaos and it helps me. It satisfies me that in a messy world I can clean it all up. Which is absolutely impossible.
I laugh.
Yeah good luck!....
There are people out there who dislike contemporary art, they just don’t get it.
What would you say to them?
That they shouldn’t feel that they should make judgment in terms of good or bad because my experience has been that I walked into an art show with preconceived ideas and I just immediately reject something. Then overtime, I would revisit that art show and don’t know if it’s my mood or I’ve read or learned something now. So go and look at art as an experience, but you don’t have to feel you choose between good and bad.
I mean, I have my own aesthetic needs and my own sensibilities, but I try to keep my mind open so that I don’t rush to judgment.
Because it limits you in a way.
Absolutely, and also the way you judge art is like the way you judge people and politics you know.
True. Very true.
What’s the role of an artist in society?
That’s heavy.
Got ya thinking huh?
I chuckle.
I think it’s important for an artist to be one of those people that endeavors to do the best that they can base on their own criteria and hopefully they can become a model for the rest of society. So that what we do has cultural significance.
It might be self-directed, it may be all about you, but hopefully people will look at this and hopefully what you’re doing expresses some of the depths of human nature. Hopefully.
Thank you. That was one of the questions I was looking forward to hearing the answer to.
Where do you think art is going?
Oh, that’s a great question. I have no idea.
I like to think that it’s becoming more diverse and that we’re less locked in what the latest fashion is and what the best school of painting is.
We’re detaching ourselves from that.
I think so. Now there’s the danger of fragmenting too much, but I like to think we’re moving away from where one art form or one school of art is much better than another. We’re focusing more on how the individual expresses himself.
What’s really important for art or where I think art should go is that we should see that each and every artist’s sensibility is unique and I like to think that each human experience is unique.
There are times when an opportunity might come along for an artist and he might consider rejecting it because of fear of rejection.
How do you differentiate from intuition and fear of failure?
Ooh that’s a tricky one.
I can be disappointed because I’ll respect the judgment, but again we can’t please all the people all the time. I’ve come to realize that if someone is going to criticize my work, or reject my work I can give them a lot of reasons why I’m humble enough to know that I have shortcomings, that I am no genius.
Don’t publish that!
But I’ve found that people who are the most critical are often the ones that don’t have knowledge.
I agree
Over time, you begin to realize that you become your own authority. You become involved more in your own art history than history in the moment or even art history in the past. So you should be open to criticism and always be open to it constructively and at a certain point you start to callus up and you understand that what you do has meaning for you.
I thanked Professor D'amelio for giving me the chance to interview him and we went our separate ways.
I learned a lot from him today.
I learned a lot from him today.
Pictures courtesy of :
http://www.thelifeworkstudio.com/subpages/gallery.html
and
http://www.laguardia.edu/humanities/visart/faculty.aspx
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