Description This piece is the artist's homage to Harris Strong. Strong was a popular mid-century artist who painted on ceramic tiles. He did a lot of bulls, similar to this, always with a bold central 'blob' of red, rather ambiguously suggesting (as Armato interprets it) the passionate heart of the beast, a bullfighting wound, or perhaps simply a Miro-like burst of abstract color. Armato is drawn to the Strong bulls for a variety of reasons, including that his own birth sign is Taurus. The first time Armato saw an elegant, wonderful (and expensive) original of one of the Harris bulls, it stayed with him for some time. Eventually he decided to create this piece, titled 'Taurus for Harris.'Armato calls his work 'Mid-Century Minded Digital Marquetry.' Wood veneer wall art was popular during the Mad Men era of the 1950s and 60s. Artists would cut exaggerated shapes from different hues and grains of wood veneer and assemble them in a sort of basic marquetry (similar to mosaic). The pieces were mounted, usually on textured or natural backgrounds such as canvas, linen or fiberboard. The finished art was framed simply, usually without mats or glass. Subject matter reflected mid-century modern motifs such as exotic peoples, musical instruments, animals, ships and cityscapes. Using high-resolution scans of various wood surfaces, Armato draws his images on screen, creating digital marquetry, which is then output as a high-resolution, archival-quality color print.
John Armato, Sacramento Member Since December 2010 Artist Statement John Armato is a creative strategist and senior partner in one of the world's largest public relations firm. He's also a jazz drummer, writer, and graphic designer.
He focuses on "Midcentury-Minded Digital Marquetry," using high resolution scans of wood grains to create images that are reminiscent of the popular DIY veneer wall art common in the Midcentury Modern era.
In addition to midcentury modern architecture, art and design, Armato is heavily influenced by his parents' artistic pursuits. His father is a accomplished watercolorist whose paintings hang in private collections around the country and sell in galleries in Kansas City, Missouri. His mother is a talented interior designer.