Michael DeSiano

Biography

MichaelDeSiano’s art concentrates on natural and cultivated flora while working withphotography, mixed media and painting. He has shown in New York City, andgalleries the United States. An advocate and writer on the visual arts, he haspublished in journals, lectured and presented workshops throughout the UnitedStates. He is the author ofPrinciples and Elements of Art and Design and the forthcoming ACT: ArtCreativity and Thinking.

Michaelposts his art works and publishes the Flora/Art Blog on social media, withaccounts on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Behance, Flickr, Reddit,Tumblr, and Blogger. His portfolio is presented on the michaeldesiano.comwebsite, and selected portfolios are posted on Deviant Art, 500px, FineArtsAmerica,SaatchiArt, Vango and Pictorem. On YouTube, the vignette videos objectivelydocument his observations, experiences and encounters, mostly in NYC.

MichaelDeSiano was born in New York City and grew up in mythic Brooklyn, amid peopleof great diversity and backgrounds striving to move forward in America. Michaelcame late to his parents, Rose and Sal. An only child, and first born male intoa traditional Italian American extended family, he received the kind ofattention that supported his success. For his fifth birthday, his beloved Aunt Madeline gave him an ErectorSet. His curiosity and imagination for three-dimensional design and sculpturebecame a lifetime interest. 

Hisfather studied chemistry at NYU to aid his “second job” a small perfumebusiness. Scents of exotic flowers filled the home and became a dailyconversation. Michael won art and craft awards in grade school. He wasencouraged to pursue art by his teachers. But he followed the more traditionalroute of mechanical engineering, because his parents, first generation ItalianAmericans and children of the depression, wanted to ensure he had a financiallysecure profession.

Heearned an engineering degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic University. However,during a backpacking trip in Italy he realized the need to pursue art. Heattended the School for American Crafts at R.I.T. and the Brooklyn Museum ArtSchool. Confident that art was the career to follow, he earned a Master’sdegree from NYU. Enthralled by both the practice and theory of art making, hecompleted a Ph.D. in Creative Arts from N.Y.U. After marrying, he and his wifePat bought a vacant candy store in Brooklyn. With their apartment, above,Michael began creating painted constructions and sculpture in his first-floorstorefront studio. Their children, Salvatore and Rose followed their father’sinterests, Sal an engineer for Google and Rose a Professor of digitalphotography.

With the help of Pat, Michael supportedhimself through teaching art on the college and graduate level. He could notdeny himself the satisfaction of teaching in some of the best art schools inthe NYC, including Pratt Institute, New York University and Queens College. Hetaught a broad range of subjects: painting, sculpture, two andthree-dimensional design, art history, and later specialized in the creativeprocess and visual thinking.

In the 1980’s, DeSiano began exhibiting consistently incommercial, university, public and cooperative galleries. His first one-personexhibit at the Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, received excellentreviews. This exhibition was followed by the Hansen Gallery on 57thSt. in NYC. He currently exhibits with the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalitionand other venues.

In the 1990’s he took time out from art making to concentrateon art theory and practice through university teaching. Researching, teachingand lecturing on art processes, aesthetics and criticism, complemented bystudio teaching, he began to follow a new path for art making. During thisperiod, he also authored a book on the Principlesand Elements of Art and Design, which is widely used and still in print.

MichaelDeSiano has led workshops, lectured and given presentations throughout theUnited States for professional artists and art educators. His popular onlinecourses in art, creativity and visual thinking are the basis for the forthcoming book, ACT – Art Creativity and Thinking, to be published this spring.This innovative e-book provides a systematic, neuropsychological-based approachto creative art making and thinking. The book makes use of quotes of masterartists, illustrated with master art works and accompanied by exercisesdesigned to stimulate, inspire, inform and advance.

After almost a decade of art research, exploration andteaching DeSiano has returned to art making. During the years of concentrated academics and theory DeSiano wanted totake time away from art making to rejuvenate, rediscover and redirect mysources of inspiration and focus. Most of all he concluded that central goal inmaking art for inspiration and meditation could be better served with a changeof media.