We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robert Fontanelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robert below.

Robert, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Most artists have multiple skills and interests, but not enough time to pursue and explore them. As a fine artist I’ve shown work in New York City galleries, developed good promotional skills, and met so many fascinating, uber talented artists. As a Creative Director (CD) I’ve grown in my abilities conceptualizing campaigns, working with international video directors, writers, actors/models, set designers, wardrobe and hair/make-up talent. I’ve been lucky enough to receive paid travel to Buenos Aires, London, Paris, Singapore, Bejing, Tokyo and Bangkok. The CD work came about from being an illustration major at Pratt Brooklyn. My college roommate got me a job storyboarding for an ad agency he was working at; and I discovered I loved visually laying out each second of a 30 second video. I became a salaried Art Director while still drawing everyday (storyboards were rendered by hand back then, not photoshopped). I’ve explored Adobe computer programs like After Effects for my work as a CD; a tool I also use in my fine art work. As a CD it’s important to keep up with advances in video art, fashion, and all things edgy; and this also informs my art. I was lucky to be born in New York City; so creative job opportunities were abundant, as were art galleries. But let me not underplay the fierce competition from creatives that came into NYC during my formative years. Yes, I could have sped up the process over a decade ago when I had an opportunity to go to grad school and get my masters from a prestigious art program. But I don’t think I would change anything if I were to do it over. Perhaps if I had been more daring/outrageous right out of Pratt I could have skipped right to art star. Manhattan back then (pre-computer) was dangerous; not many young people hung around in the city at night. It took a lifetime for me to be that daring person. Drug use and AIDS took so many of my more daring artist friends, including many of my more luminous Pratt classmates.

Robert, 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?

I got into making ceramics just to stop myself from buying vintage ceramics. The few times I was flush with cash I’d purchased a 20th century icon of modernist design, be it deco, mid-century or post-modern 80s. Objects I had discovered in museum design collections or in auction catalogs or design survey coffee table books. And there were times where I was broke and had to sell these same objects of desire. So one day I walked past Greenwich House Pottery in Greenwich Village with my partner; we went in and were hooked! After a long, arduous learning curve (which took a few years) I developed the skills, experience and knowledge to hand-build sculpture and decorative pieces. The seasoned ceramic artists at GHP were inspirational and a few were nurturing mentors. I found it to be a comfortable place to create provocative and slightly subversive pieces. After all; a thousand ceramists can make safe, familiar pieces – I felt the need to make something that could possibly become iconic. If someone dug up a vase I’d made 1000 years from now – shouldn’t it be unique and have something to say about my time? My Rude Ceramics series is comprised of elegant vases and bowls that at first seem Bauhaus or deco, but on further inspection they reveal polarizing, incendiary words and phrases like FAGGOT, BASTARD, UP YOURS or GO TO HELL. The ceramic series start out as roughly sketched concepts. I challenge myself to bring these concepts to fruition. And that’s always been my process; fine tuning work that began as a messily scribbled sketch. I have thousands of rough sketches that need to be developed, and hopefully will be. So I never have to worry about not having an idea because all I have to do is open up a decade old box that was stuffed with raw concepts back then. Miraculously they all seem fresh.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Of the artists in my circle who have broken out recently – I’ve noticed something they have in common. They are not the most talented (and I don’t mean that in a mean way) but they are the most exuberantly expressive visually in an untrained sort of way. Meaning they may have been trained traditionally, but have transitioned to a freer, more energetic, childlike style that reads as more spontaneous than studied. They also have cultivated a huge following through social, along with having a unique personal style and presence when appearing in person. Some even have cool, memorable names. As an illustration major originally; I’ve had to unlearn taking viewers by the hand to drive home a concept. Now I prefer to challenge viewers who may try to read into what I am saying. Stylistically I’ve learned to leave my mistakes in finished drawings, or maybe not even finish them. A good friend always said he sometimes preferred my rougher sketches to the final artwork.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What drives me is challenge; creating artwork that pushes the envelope and provokes people to think. I do like shock value and aspire to be cutting edge. I also imbue a dry sense of humor into my art; which I’ve found there is an audience for. I would wear my furniture clothing to art openings – often amusing or perplexing the people in the gallery. I’m also motivated to make political statements; for my mask series executed during the pandemic, I put up a series of provocative mask posters all around New York City. Some people interacted with them and wrote political messages on them. My cancer ashtray series is much more serious – the concept being – what if ashtrays also got cancer from cigarettes? A traditional astray seems to distort and expand in ways that are evocative of invasive plant species.

Contact Info:

• Website: robertfontanelli.com
• Instagram: robert_fontanelli_art_archive
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.fontanelli

Image Credits
Rolf Sjogren (for the two portraits of me).