We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anthony Fatato a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

It was hot summer day in 2008 and I decided to work on one of my commissioned paintings in Coffey Park to find relief from my sweltering loft studio. At that time I lived in Red Hook Brooklyn, which is home to one of the largest low income housing complexes in all of North America. My studio was located in what’s called the luggage factory which borders Coffey park to the north. The low income housing complex borders the park to the south and east. As I was painting, three young teens from the neighborhood approached me and asked if they could paint with me. I allow them to take only a few small strokes each on the canvas but promised that if they came back next Saturday that I bring a canvas just for them. Sure enough that next Saturday they were there waiting for me. I set them up on their canvas and began giving them some ideas on how they might work together to create a painting. Within 15 minutes I had around 20 children begging me to paint. I explain that the canvas was not big enough for all of them, but if they came back next weekend, I would bring a large enough canvas for all of us to work together. That next week they were there waiting for me. I set up a large canvas and arranged the students into teams of red yellow and blue. We discussed the primary colors, and how they work together in a to give an illusion of light. This one class quickly evolved into workshops every weekend. There was an abandoned parks department building in the center of the park, which we work together as a neighborhood to turn into a classroom. Many accomplished, artist and craft people began teaching classes out of that building. The parks department asked me to attend a local career day to offer our workshops two more local young adults and children. This was the most disappointing career day I had ever seen. Along side me and our “Arts In The Park Program” the options provided for these children were court officer, correction, facility officer, or paramedics. It was insulting to these children who live in the richest city in the world, surrounded by all the career opportunities imaginable to be presented with such limited options. After I presented our arts programs in Coffey Park I decided to speak up. First, I pointed out the obvious. They live in NYC and there are endless career options surrounding them. Then I asked them what their passion is and what are the opportunities that they were hoping to find here at career day. They rushed up to me with resumes in their hand. Someone had at least prepared them with resumes. I decided to have them write their name, their parents name which career they wanted an opportunity in and their parents phone number. I brought the list to the group of artists and local activists to begin matching these youth with local professionals. This was the beginning of the World Education Endeavor, a 501(c)(3) that I launched with colleagues in 2010. This year we are re-launching with an evolutionArty app that aims to re-invent education and career development. Our mission is to close the opportunity gap. During the pandemic, we took the time to re-design the app and organization, and get ready for a new launch that is happening now. We are recruiting a new board and raising $1.5 million to build the app and use it to create educational and career development opportunities on a massive scale.

Anthony, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Waves move us, shape us and hold us together. There is meaning in the movement of the elements, there is more power in the subtile than the gross and everything is illuminated. My work discusses a perception of reality and beyond duality where everything is one fabric. A collective conscience, I believe that the universe is more accessible than one might think. As quantum theories become accepted scientific facts our understanding of reality is shifting. For those that need reassurance, previously dismissed shamanistic or spiritual understandings of energy fields, multiple dimensions and oneness are now confirmed by science. Now we know that our universe is not separate ping-pong balls of atoms but an intensely interwoven fabric made out of an enormous spectrum of waves. A fabric made of energy that is connected from one side of the universe to the other. My work is devotional and made for personal and societal transmutation. I imagine a world where people truly understand that we are all connected deeply. My work is decidedly not passive or decorative. I intend my drawings, painted stories, digital art and social practice art to have a positive impact on viewers. It intends to change the viewers perception of reality and inspire transmutation in the spirit of European alchemy.

BIO:
A native NY’er Anthony has been making and selling his work for a lifetime. His studies at Cal arts, School and Visual Arts and the Arts Students’ League were a myriad of anthropological, film, digital art and classical painting studies. He delved deep into the medieval, Renaissance and 1700 Flemish painting methods and materials. He currently shows and sells his work through his Manhattan showroom. His core patron base is in Marin County SF, NYC Metropolitan area but has collectors worldwide. Much of his work is bespoke commissions for patrons that depict their dreams, memories or visions of the future.
Some of his most powerful work has been in the “social practice art” space as founder of The World education Endeavor, or WE Endeavor (501c3). It started in 2006 in Red Hook Brooklyn when he created an art education program in partnership with the NYC Parks Department. He rallied the community in Red Hook Brooklyn to revive an unused classroom in Coffey Park. After refurbishing the classroom he and the community created art classes for underserved youth with high-level professional artists living in the neighborhood. This project led to the creation of WE Endeavor, an effort to make the American dream more accessible by helping to close the opportunity gap through a disruptive app currently in development.
He is currently relaunching The World Education Endeavor/WE Endeavor and producing a series of large scale paintings, digital installations and conceptual art entitled “no dark place.”
“No dark place”
Black is an idea, manmade. Black is a human concept representing hopelessness that does not exist. Black is only the limitation of the human eye. Outerspace, though described as black is filled with light. Every planet and moon is surrounded by the light of billions of stars on all sides. There is no dark place for living seeing humans. Everything over 1 degree in temperature gives off a light. As hot, 98 degree electric water-beings we give off a fairly bright red light. So, even if you did arrive in a completely dark place, you are the light. “No Dark Place” invites patrons to a hopeful reality where every bit of the universe is illuminated, sentient and connected by a gorgeous fabric of interconnected waves, held together by love and made of story.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The purpose of the narratives in my paintings is introduce my viewers to animism.. the goal is to bring them closer to the reality I live in, where everything is alive and connected. We are nature.. Reality is the stories we tell.

The purpose of WE Endeavor is to witness a world connected by their hearts. I want to create a premiss where we understand the value of expounding on each others, ideas and wisdom, instead of competing with each other. Like da Vinci and Darwin, my observations of the natural world, as an artist needs to amount to inventions that advance civilization.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

We have designed WE Endeavor to foster a thriving creative, knowledge-sharing ecosystem.

I think there is a toxic corporate culture that wants to pay less for the crucial creative work that goes into their products and services. Every product is first designed by an artist. Creatives are necessary to make any product look and function well. Then marketing, creatives make those products appealing and accessible to the public. There are a lot of upfront creative costs for corporations and business owners, when making any new product. As a creative I constantly come up against narratives that devalue my work/creative work. Discrediting these false narratives around the value of the creative in the marketplace is the best thing a society can do to help creativity, thrive in our culture.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.anthonyfatato.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/anthonyfatato.artist?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.fatato.3?mibextid=2JQ9oc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatato-47147819

Image Credits
Lauretta Prevost