Veronica Galati, Figurative Artist



Posted: Tuesday, December 19, 2006

by Darcy DeMarco

Las Vegas artist Veronica Galati says that the "visual pictures" she gets of photographs and other images from life that she wants to paint are clear enough for her to capture them in her artwork. She holds the photograph, usually of a person or persons, up to her face and works from the picture that she gets of the photograph's subject. What is so unusual about this, you might ask? Veronica Galati is legally blind.

Galati, who used to live in New York and is well known in art circles, has macular degeneration. Her eyesight has been poor all of her life, and has deteriorated in recent years. Despite this problem, she has been a prolific artist, with Curator awards from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ellen Handy, Curator) and the Whitney (Patterson Sims, Curator) Museum in New York. She has been exhibited around the world. "I was born to be a figurative artist," she says. "My interest in figurative art began when I was a child, in Bayridge, Brooklyn, New York. Even at age four, my work was mature," she recounts. "I grew up around texture, color and form. As a child, I was fascinated by form. My parents, who worked in the garment industry, had a dress form in the house, inspiring my interest in color, texture and human movement. These inspired my interest in figurative art, and my fascination with form."

Galati says that when she was eight, a school teacher recommended her to the prestigious Pratt Art School in Brooklyn, New York. There, she learned to draw from life, although the models had to be clothed, because the classes were for children. In 1957, she received her Bachelors of Science degree from NYU, in Creative Arts/Music Education. "My family wanted me to be a musician," she says. She started out teaching music in Northport, New York. In the 1970s, she returned to school and earned a Master's of Art from Hunter College. As her eyesight deteriorated, she turned to sculpture. Her work in this medium has been compared to that of Rodin (as seen by the art critic Dominique Nahas) from her sculpture exhibit in 1999 at the Arts Forum Gallery, W 57th Street, New York.

"I have an authentic vision for the human form," she explains. "In the creation of my artworks, I transform what God created, and become co-creator with Him." Galati has been told that she has a unique style. "My hallmark signature is the high visibility of my draftswomanship," (Galati's word) she says. She adds that there is a spiritual connection in her work. "My gifts are from God. When you draw, when you paint, it's like an altered state. You transcend. You become one with the Creator."

"Galati's parents are from Calabria, Italy. Her mother, who earlier this year celebrated her 100th birthday, also lives in Las Vegas. When she was twelve, her mother was struck by lightning, and became psychic. "She always knew she'd live to be a hundred or more," Galati says. Until this past January, Galati was her mother's caregiver. "My mother says the hills (of Las Vegas) remind her of Calabria."

Galati drew and painted, and in 1972 began sculpting as well. She won a fellowship at the Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. "I was mature when I began to sculpt," she says. She feels that disabilities need not limit a person. In 2003, she was invited to exhibit and to speak at OASIS about macular degeneration. Her theme was, "My artist ability transcends my visual ability." In 1988, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York asked her to produce paintings of the Hall of Fame inductees. And, in 2002-2003, the Siena Golf Course (Las Vegas) exhibited her paintings of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, G. Saracen and Payne Stewart.

Galati says that her mother's mortaility - she was given the last rites in December 2005 - made her realize that she had a 45-year artistic legacy to preserve. She began cataloguing her artwork, sending her paintings, drawings and sculpture off to the different museums to have them discovered by future generations. The legacy of her art can be found at www.artistveronicagalati.com.

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