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

Alright, Antony thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been making a full-time living from my artwork for over 20 years now. I have always painted portraits on commission but things really began to unfold for me when I opened a small storefront gallery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 2002. It had long been a dream of mine to run my own gallery and, in the wake of 9/11, I watched the cost of rent plummet in the classified ads in the Village Voice. There was one shop I adored on Ludlow Street and when it dropped to $1325 a month, I pulled the trigger. I had only a vague plan but the building owner took a chance on me and I stayed in that space for 5 years. During this time, I worked feverishly night and day, creating mountains of artwork and hosting monthly exhibitions splitting the space with other artists. My studio/gallery became a staple artspace in the community and cemented my reputation as a portrait painter and curator. It was there that I met and interacted with so many people who would make a lasting impact on my career – like Jim Jarmusch (who used my paintings in two of his movies) and Michael Musto of the Village Voice. Several years after closing the space, I moved back to Connecticut, to the beautiful stone house that my parents built in East Granby. Since then I have also become interested in mural art and arts instruction as well as my steady work as a portrait painter. Although I do a lot of work for hire, I always continue to develop my own body of work, utilizing found materials and exploring the depths of my personal creative consciousness.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was raised by a family of artists and have always been surrounded by art. I was taught at an early age to have deep respect for craft and the balance that must be achieved between technique and the presence of energy alive in a work of art. My parents were true classicists, obsessed with the Italian Renaissance as well as the Impressionists, Expressionists and Cubists. I learned everything I could want to know about art history long before I would begin to study it in college. I grew up drawing from life, either portraits from a live sitter or intensive observation studies of still life objects.

Living in New York in the 90s and 2000s, I became very interested in the amazing trash that found itself on the curb every day. It was then that I began my life-long work of painting portraits on found objects such as discarded mirrors, cabinet doors, etc – anything with a surface capable of holding paint. I became known for this type of work in New York and was commissioned to paint hundreds of portraits over the years. After being hired to work with a live-painting group on tour through Spain in 2011, I became more interested in mural art which I now include in my primary repertoire.

The one thing that I do best is capture the likeness of a person. I have always had a knack for bringing the canvas to life with an accurate depiction of the portrayed, in such a way that the portrait contains the stuff of a living, breathing being. In my view, this is essential to a good portrait and some portrait artists do this better than others.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In my experience, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist who works on his own terms is that my life is not restricted to a schedule. I make my own hours and have learned to nurture the creative impulse by integrating lots of free time, distraction, overlapping projects and a sense of play. Nothing is more important to me than living a life of freedom and it has always been this precise desire which has guided me towards my own way of doing things and kept me from having “a real job”.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve always stuck to my guns. I am an artist and always work on my own terms. Yes, I’ve held some other jobs over the years; antique moving & display design, interior painting, newspaper production, bicycle weed delivery (before it was legal), man-with-a-van, and whatever odd jobs I could find. I’ve had great employers and awful ones but I could never utter those horrible words, “my Boss”. I’ve always had a problem with authority, with someone telling me what to do. I also hated having my art judged and rejected. As a young artist I applied to RISD and was rejected. This always stuck in my craw, especially after meeting some really bad artists who earned degrees there.

I have always kept my compass pegged for true north and thats the direction I go in, whatever it takes. I’ve always known that it just takes time, drops in the bucket. My focus on personal freedom is the force drives me and every year I find just a little more success and flexibility. It’s not always easy but its definitely doable. As a wise cat once meowed, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.zitogallery.com
• Instagram: zitozone
• Facebook: Antony Zito
• Linkedin: Antony Zito
• Youtube: zitozone

Image Credits

all photos by Antony Zito