I was first introduced to the art of Richard Del Rosso in 1981. Leaning against a chair on the first floor of a brownstone, a vibrant painting of sunflowers and bumblebees came to life on the cover of a portfolio. Fate turned my head. At first I thought it belonged to the owner of the apartment that I was visiting and when I exclaimed how beautiful it was I was told that it belonged to a friend who lived on the 7th floor of my building across the street on West 83rd between Amsterdam and Broadway.

I later learned that Richard was also an illustrator and had done some rather controversial editorial art for The Daily News and The New York Times. For example, and not to ruffle any more feathers in 2007, his life was threatened after a particular depiction of The Ayatola Khomeini with a beard of snakes shortly after the Shah of Iran lost control and exiled to the US. Freelance work alone did not pay the bills and like so many people in the arts he also moonlighted as a waiter downtown at a great restaurant owned and operated by renowned chef John Clancy. His roommate on 83rd was a jazz pianist. Richard loved jazz. He would later describe the improvisational process of his work to that of a jazz musician taking a solo. One of his favorite sayings was one by the great paino player Thelonius Monk “The cats I like best are the cats that take chances”.

His journey to New York City was in many ways a full circle. He was raised in Hicksville NY, a suburb of NYC and a blue collar breeding ground, literally and figuratively. His father, first generation Italian, had worked for Grumman and was in part responsible for the development of back up systems for the Gulf Stream and the F14 post WWII. He grew up in one of those neighborhoods where all the cape cod houses looked alike. His Uncle James Dermody, a catholic priest, was a tremendous influence on him. While in seminary, James studied not only the Bible but all of the great philosophers in their original languages. Latin, Greek, German and French so he was an intellectual who chose to serve those in greatest need, rejecting opportunities of self aggrandizement within the corporate structure of the church. When Richard was little James’ love of language translated to endless word games and in later years he lovingly placed grammatical corrections on all letters that had been written from Richard and which were returned to Richard with the corrections for the purpose of improvement and growth. James did truly live a life of poverty and good deeds. The majority of his work involved visiting the homebound. Richard always respected his devotion to charitable acts. Like his Uncle James, Richard is the epitome of goodness and the finest example of humanity. Thoughtful, well read and with an internal moral compass embedded in his heart and soul. James lovingly referred to Richard as “The Professor” from very early on, perhaps even the age of three and that might have been born from the way he looked with his eye glasses post a serious car accident.

As an artist, it is interesting to note here that there were two times in Richards life when he was blind. The first was at age three when his mother lost control of the family car less than a block from his home and crashed it on the corner of Underhill and West Nicholai. This was followed by a series of eye operations to remove glass. His vision returned after a year. But for that year he wore little dark glasses and a patch totally covering one eye. The second occurred as a teenager when he contracted a virus that froze his retinas in an open position and his lenses were locked. All he saw was light. Over a period of two years, colors and definition gradually returned leaving one pupil forever a little larger than the other.

Summers as a child were spent with his three brothers and one sister in upstate New York in Watkins Glen. This was the home of his Italian paternal grandparents. Regarded as the sickly one already, it was here that he honed his love and appreciation for nature, birds, a special inlet. He was deeply cared for by his grandmother who was pivotal in providing a sense of value and belonging. His grandfather toiled in the salt mines there and also owned a barbershop a few hundred yards from Seneca Lake. When Richard was 4 years old he went swimming in Lake Seneca and nearly drowned. He was saved by his beloved Uncle Joe but it was discovered that the incident was brought about by cramping brought on by polio. The family returned to Hicksville and Richard entered the hospital to undergo excruciating treatments and physical therapy. So truly by the age of five he had already experienced more than his share of suffering. He was left with a damaged leg. As an adolescent he spent his summers desperate to be normal and joined the local baseball team only to sit on the bench shucking peas with the coaches wife as she prepared for dinner. He did not get to play. There was not much sympathy from his teammates for a player with one good leg when they wanted to win!

Richard spent his grammar school years in a very strict parochial school.(Weren’t they all) In those days the nuns were allowed to hit you. Richard could attest to this first hand. His spirit was always strong and by 7th grade joined with some of his classmates to strap firecrackers to big paper mache nun and hang it out the window and light it on fire. Watching Sister Mary try to extinguish the flames will forever remain a favorite memory of his spirit rebellious. A creative and appropriate response to years of Catholic guilt and corporal punishment. His feelings from this time in his life are perhaps expressed in some of his works, particularly his assemblage pieces titled “Angelicas” and his painting “Big Baby”.

It really is no wonder that he was not encouraged to participate in normal sports. Headstrong he continued with gymnastics, trying to build up his upper body to compensate for the crippled leg. He became quite proficient on the rings but always felt the stigma. But for the most part his teen years were repleat with the same teen angst that we all shared. Richards first car was a 55 Oldsmobile Deluxe which he drove for about 8 months. During that time he did a lot of surfing off of the south shore of Long island- another demonstration of defiance to the effect of the polio. Riding the waves and driving that car provided his first sense of freedom and autonomy. That was until the car conveniently seized in front of a junk yard. Then at 19 he bought a motorcycle to get around in and attended couple of semesters at Nassau Community College. Here he took his first drawing class. Little would he know that he would one day teach digital art at that same place. As is often the case with sons and fathers in the late 60’s, the escalating conflicts made it clear that it was time to move out of the family home. He applied to Arizona State University and headed west. He was starting over. His intention was to study embryology but this quickly morphed in this more creative environment where his friends were artists and filmmakers. Here he began to explore what seemed inevitable. Art.

Upon his return to NY from Arizona, Richard and some of his artist friends attended Marymount College in Tarrytown NY where they studied with Alan Kober. Alan, an illustrator and fine artist had become famous for his book “The Forgotten Society” which was an illustrated expose of the mistreatment of the mentally retarded at the Willowbrook Facility in upstate NY.

Although an evolution occurred over time to encompass a more than typical spectrum of expressive art mediums Richard’s genesis was in editorial art. So the need to express a message of social content or commentary beyond aesthetic visual was always ever present. He was attracted to any expression that possessed content. Richard began freelancing editorial art in the 80’s and it was during this time that he paid the rent working in the meatpacking industry. He would awaken at 5am on the upper west side of Manhattan, grab a bagel at H&H, take the subway to Canarsie and put in 8 hours a day packing meat.
He eventually graduated from packing meat to serving meat as he worked at various restaurants throughout the city waiting on tables. Waiter by day, artist by night and vice versa. In the early 1980’s he met his wife and married her within the same year. Two years later his daughter Lily was born. Upon return home from Lily’s birth, baby in one arm, balloons in the other they walked through the front door of the floor -through on 89th and CPW, and he said to his wife “now what do we do?” to which she responded “we live life”.

While freelancing for the News, Richard enrolled in some courses at the School of Visual Arts one of which was under the tutelage of digital innovator Laurence Gartel. At this time in the very early 80’s digital art was still in its infancy but there was enough of a presence to know that it would indeed be a significant element in the future of artistic expression. He continued to freelance and in 1986 he moved back to Long Island to be near family and to give his daughter the proverbial normal life with the backyard, swing set, pets et al. He kept a studio on 42nd and 9th avenue. It was a utility office and four floors above a strip joint. He often shared rides on the elevator with working girls in various costumes and assundry attire. Sometimes they carried props as well like paper mache bones, palm trees etc. and so at 12 noon, he would hear the bells of Holy Cross from his window and the boom boom ba boom of the strip club vibrating up from the first floor all at once. Thus creating a auditory cocktail of moral contradiction and as always a reminder of earlier times and the impact of his Catholic upbringing..His column at the Daily News survived fifteen years, two strikes, the assumed suicide of the owner Robert Maxwell in 1991, the paper’s bankruptcy but would not survive the arrival of the digital age. His work was replaced.

With a background in the service industry he returned to the kitchen. This time it would not be in NYC but in the suburbs of Long Island in the institutional cafeteria of an educational facility. There, during weekdays, he supervised two elderly women, Mary and Margaret. Both wore the traditional hairnets and I say this only to set the visual stage for what served as the impetus for change in Richard’s life. His day began at 7am to 3 pm and then he would drive to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and work as the head chef at a French Restaurant. Each evening around midnight he would return to his home with empty large plastic jugs that once held cooking oil which he would then cut up and use to create sculptures and masks.(Sculpture and Masks-The Oil Jug Period)) The crescendo for change was building along with the need for expression. Perhaps it was that hundredth request to cut the bagel a certain way for one of the persnickety administrators, that ultimately drove him back to Long Island University to complete his degree in Fine Art and subsequent Masters in Digital Art. It would be interesting to note here that the very people who demanded bigger butter dollops on their bagles and toast later became some of his graduate students at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University. More important was the camaraderie and mentoring that Richard experienced there.with the faculty. In particular one professor, John Feckner, a renowned graffiti artist. Again this demonstrated Richards appreciation of John’s art as it contained significant social commentary. As you will see in some of Richards pieces an anti war political statement in the examples of fine art "Flag", "Live TV", in the assemblage venu "Sam", "Them/Us", and in the animated musical video "Song of Songs (SOS)".

While completing his Masters at CW Post he was invited by other local universities to adjunct and then upon graduation he was given an invitation of full- time tenure track employment at Nassau Community College. After a year there, a position opened up at CW Post and he was invited to join LIU at the behest or recommendation of John Feckner, the director of the digital art and design program. While he had wonderful relationships with his friends at Nassau, his positive experience and the mentoring he received as a student at CW Post held an emotional component of loyalty to those who valued him not only as an asset to the program but more importantly valued him as a human being and a shared sensibility. Having taught many students the plethora of digital software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Maya 3D, Quark Express, Macromedia software, Final Cut Pro and having spent effort with them all to light a fire and encourage their creative voices it became clear that he needed to focus on his own creative voice. He did this in a way so as to include all of these capabilities into his fine art. There seemed to be a misconception in the fine art world that digital art was something less than authentic. In other words the perception was that with digital art, the computer actually did the creating with the push of a few buttons and manipulation of the mouse. In actuality these programs increased the tool options for the creative mind that continued to do the creating. With no such command available as “paint beautiful landscape” button. He would liken the process to the computer screen as the canvass, the mouse as the paintbrush with the computer providing the colors, types of strokes, various layering like a complex palette. He never used appropriated imagery in his work.

His work then expanded to transforming these computer generated creations to the medium of digital video to create multimedia presentations. The animations would be created either on the computer or created on the actual traditional canvas and scanned into the computer, brought into the various video or digital software programs, be embellished or turned into video movement and then be printed back out for use on a mixed media canvas to create assemblage, fine art or sculpture, or even a print from one of the frames. This was true mixed multimedia which encompassed all of the technologies full circle. It was not unusual to find included into these works found or discarded every day objects such as an abandoned hornets nest, an envelope, dried sunflower, nails, onion bag netting, page reinforcers, feathers, pvc pipe or aluminum foil. This would create a full blending of all media available at the time.
In 2003 Richard and his family traveled to Europe staying in Paris, Venice and concluding the trip in East Berlin where Richard was exhibiting assemblage pieces “snailman” and “birdman”. While in Paris he spent considerable time at the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay researching the great masters. Finally face to face with the Mona Lisa and the great slave sculptures of Michelangelo his soul was replenished and inspired.