Robert Amato
I was born in Manhattan on January 31, 1956 to 1st generation Italian-Americans.
Like so many immigrant families in America, then and now, they didn¹t have
much except strong shoulders, a love for their family and new country. Working
hard and trying to do my best at all times was established with those roots
and personalities.
My family moved to East New York, Brooklyn, and it is here that I set out
on my journey to become a painter. Along the way special mentors have guided
my passion for painting. From my early grade school teachers in Brooklyn where
I lived until 1968 to a special ³signpost² in my life, Mr. J. Evan Beauchamp,
who was my art teacher from 8th grade until my graduation from high school
in Upstate New York in 1974. He noticed, encouraged and shaped my early understanding
and appreciation of my creative and painting talents. He helped me discover
the ³Beauty in the Beast² I was battling with during those turbulent teenage
years. He explained to me how I would always be in a state of becoming an
artist, that growth in any aspect of my life would require change.
Upon graduation I was accepted at the State University College of Buffalo
into the Art Education school. In my sophomore year I switched majors and
refocused my whole self on becoming a painter. What I thought was going to
be easy proved to be a very trying two years of dissolution. I was dissatisfied
with how I was being instructed and actually received ³D¹s² in my major. Going
into my senior year I was not sure if I would continue on, and I seriously
considered quitting college for awhile and pursue spray painting custom murals
on automobiles. But, with a suggestion from my senior studio professor, coupled
with what I had studied in a design class I began painting subliminal suggestion
pieces. I felt I was fooling the viewer with the hidden words I had in my
work, such as ³U-Like², ³Grade A², ³Love Me², and ³Sexes². But what had really
happened was I became relaxed. I began to have fun.
I graduated in 1978 at the top of my painting class. I moved back to New York
City. Then late in 1979 I moved to the Gulf Coast of Texas where I started
a family. In 1984 we moved back to Upstate New York, where I began my career
in the printing industry as a designer and illustrator. As the economy and
workflow slowed in this area in 1994, we decided to relocate to the Atlanta,
Georgia area. In 2000 I lost my job, and was going through a divorce. I was
eventually rehired and transferred to New Jersey, I also began living in the
New York City area with my future wife. In 2003 I was transferred back to
Atlanta, and in 2004 remarried.