Anthony Granato has self-diagnosed ‘Art ADD.’
The visual artist describes this further as an intense love for all art; painting, photography, drawing, print making, sculpting and digital graphics. He describes his own work as mixed media, though he says he truly considers himself a painter.
“The process in which I create my art is much like developing a riddle,” he says. “I start with the answer and work backwards. I begin with the final product then figure out how to make it happen. I take elements I’ve drawn, sculpted or photographed and scan them into the computer. Once in the computer, I bring them all together and merge them into one cohesive image. They are then printed with fully archival materials, mounted on board and then finished in oils. What makes my work truly unique is I make the artwork to fit the frames instead of vice versa.” He adds that the frames used to display the work are either completely fabricated from scratch or are salvaged antique or vintage frames.
Granato is a Utah native and attended Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Ore., gaining a BFA in Illustration with a split minor in Graphic Design and Painting. He says his Art ADD began when he was 5 when his drawings of rainbows, dogs, houses and people were quickly enhanced by lessons from his father in proportion. “Legs and arms don’t come out of the heads of people, dogs don’t look like park benches and houses are way bigger than people,” Granato says. “It opened my mind to a whole new world of creating. After that, I hit the ground running, I wanted to artistically study everything that was in my sight. I haven’t stopped since.”
He says dichotomies are especially important to the foundation of his work, with old and new, beautiful and ugly or good and evil all being fused physically and conceptually into the pieces. “I’m constantly scheming on ways to portray my visual concepts in new and exciting ways,” Granato says. “Painting big has been immensely satisfying for me and I want to push the sizes even more. I’ve been in a veritable state of constant euphoria since I’ve focused on my fine art. I’m going to market my more edgy work to the East and West Coast as well as Santa Fe, N.M. The ultimate goal is to keep on keeping on. To create, travel and meet amazing people is paramount for my overall success and happiness.”
— Daisy Blake
In This Week Magazine
