Hi All,
I'm John Mansueto, fine art landscape painter, freelance illustrator and staff artist at the "Fire Island Tide Newspaper"
Let me start at the beginning:
First the Earth cooled, then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat and died...then the Arabs came and started drilling oil....Mmm, I think that's too far back...let me start over...
First I was born, which goes without saying.
I didn't do my first water change until I started Discus...but that's skipping ahead...you all following me here???
Good.
I live in Islip Hamlet, First Crown Patent 1683, Colonial Government Formed 1710.
It must have been an English Colony. There is an Islip in England and another in Washington State I believe.
Islip is located on the south shore of Long Island, New York.
Some people think we Long Islanders have an accent, and pronounce it Long Guyland...maybe I'm just not hearing it. But I think my accent is all confused because lived and worked in NYC for a number of years and was around a lot of old Italian types.
I spend much of my summers on Fire Island across the Great South Bay, a narrow barrier island that protects the mainland (Long Island) from the storms of the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm a second generation Italian.
My Father was born in the Bronx's and my Mom in NYC.
I have two brother's, one older, one younger then me and a sister, who's the baby of the family.
My Mom's side of the family owns a well know bakery in NYC called DeRobertis Pasticceria Est. 1904 by my great grandfather. It has been used as a location in a few movies and cable show such as Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and the very first episode of "Sex in the City"
I worked there (managed the store at nite, no, I do not bake, we hired people for that) for about 14 yrs while I slowly built my art career and established myself as an artist.
It's only been the last few years that I have begun looking into and exploring the gallery scene, moving away from illustration, so far, so good.
I went to collage at Parsons School of Design, in NYC and received my BFA in 1983.
I am an active collector of "American Flyer "S" Gauge Trains, but at the moment I have no layout...I always figured that when I retire (In Neveruary) I'll have a lot of toys to play with!!!
I've always been the one in the family with all the pets.
I've always had a fish tank of some sort. I've had turtles, chickens, rabbits, and most of all dogs. After my Golden Retriever "Monty" had to be put down because of cancer at 6 years of age, I couldn't bring myself to get another dog...that was almost two years ago.
I get too darn attached to puppies and what happened to "Monty" truly broke my heart.
So I decided that since I always wanted to try my hand at keeping Discus, now was as good a time as any. Which brings me to my first water change!!!
Yeah!!!
I'm sure there s something I left out...like, I'm single and will stay that way.
I'll always remember the words of one of my teacher's at Parsons:
"Don't get married, your an Artist, your already screwed up"
I'm a big SciFi fan and was a "trekkie" for years until the greatest SciFi TV show of all time came out: "Babylon 5"
In fact my quote below is from the last episode of the show and really says a lot if you think about it.