What the Heart wants and the Heart needs can be found in a Fabio Napoleoni painting. Nostalgia, sorrow and moments that lift the soul are all there for the world to see and experience along with him. The vivid colors and captivating characters invite you into an emotional ride that is welcomed by the mind and the Heart. Simple landscapes set the stage to the value of emotional attachment that can be compared to no other. Influences from some of this century’s greatest artists are hard to find in his pieces, but are drenched deep in the fabric of what puts a Napoleoni painting together.
Fabio NapoleoniWhat the Heart wants and the Heart needs can be found in a Fabio Napoleoni painting. Nostalgia, sorrow and moments that lift the soul are all there for the world to see and experience along with him. The vivid colors and captivating characters invite you into an emotional ride that is welcomed by the mind and the Heart. Simple landscapes set the stage to the value of emotional attachment that can be compared to no other. Influences from some of this century’s greatest artists are hard to find in his pieces, but are drenched deep in the fabric of what puts a Napoleoni painting together.
It all started in Ponce, Puerto Rico 1972 . . . Every child loves to spend time playing outside, but this was not an option for Fabio. From birth the artist suffered from asthma so horrific that several times a week he needed allergy shots to prevent severe asthma from consuming him. Many days and weeks were spent on the family sofa surrounded by art supplies given to him by his mother. An artist herself, she noticed that creating art came much easier to her son that it did for her. So, during the times that asthma overwhelmed him, she felt compelled to supply his creative side with the tools to create.
Many events influenced Fabios’ artwork but none more than the traumatic events that followed the birth of his second child. His daughter, born with major heart abnormalities, had to face several surgeries to correct issues that could prevent her from having a future. Overwhelmed with his daughter’s issues and surrounded by an emotional sea of sorrow from other parents in the same situation, Fabio grew. While his wife and daughter slept, Fabio wondered the halls of the Children’s Care Unit looking for a spot where he could sketch out his personal thoughts. From these thoughts a new form of creativity was born. The doors to Fabio Napoleoni’s Heart were now opened for the world to experience.
It took a traumatic experience for Fabio to realize what he was missing in his work . . . Emotion. He had all the ingredients to create but none that captivated the soul. With his new ideas and old sketches in hand Fabio added the last ingredient needed . . . Emotional Experience.
With his vibrant and bold use of colors along with many of his characters, Fabio has managed to create an emotional value to art that has been missing. His paintings could have a thousand titles and every one would be fitting of the image he has created; but one thing is for sure, you will always find a beautiful Heart in every piece of his work. A symbol of his love for his daughter . . . she lives today and will forever in his work.
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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