Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Mongato.
Hi Deborah, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My story begins growing up as a super shy girl in a small town found in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. My playground was always outside exploring nature big and small in the wooded landscape I grew up in. The colors were vivid in the spring, summer, and fall and those colors are deeply embedded in my work today through the use of color of the sunlight on nature, the feel of the winds through brushstrokes. Art was in my genes as I had a creative, crafty, plant loving mother, and Grandmother Ruth who loved painting. My earliest memory with paint was in Kindergarten where there was a gigantic easel with bright tubs of colors set up in the back of the room. I could hardly wait for my turn and painted my teacher, Mrs. Reese, with her dangling eyeglasses on a chain down her blouse. My first portrait was selected to go on to the Gloversville Public Library and won a first-place ribbon. An early mentor was a cool art teacher, Mr. Frizzel (think Kramer from Seinfeld) in elementary school that encouraged me. These simple experiences of my youth became the tapestry of my return to art later in my life.
Years passed by and I left upstate New York, married, and started a family. As a mother, my creativity instead involved creating for my girls: creating 4-foot ballerina dolls, painted T-shirts, sewing clothes, painting sneakers, and crafting much like my own mother did. As my children grew, I returned to school and became an elementary teacher, and I explored my creativity for and with my students. Enter the empty nest time of my life and I began to rediscover and connect to art for myself. This opened up a whole exciting world for me while I took courses at the community college, online and in person workshops, and explored drawing, watercolors, collage, and acrylic painting. I attended workshops locally and as far away as California. Some of my favorite instructors that have influenced me are the late Trish Thompson, Wyanne Thomson, Elizabeth Hillaire Nelson, Patrick Rausch, Tracey Verdugo, Kimberly Santini, Robert Burridge, and Jane Slivka. I like to acknowledge the artists that have shared their talents with me and helped me grow, and hope to encourage others in finding their way to seek out fellow artists in their own community and online. We are so fortunate to have so many sources of inspiration today. I truly believe an artist lives in all of us.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Looking back, the road was more busy than smooth. Life is certainly full of struggles, but really just part of the journey. The journey of leaving one career to have a family, returning to college to teach, while raising my two daughters put my art journey on hold until later in life, However, these life experiences made me richer because of those struggles. Like most of us with careers, creating can be pushed aside until the business of life and career slows down. Life goes very fast and I am most grateful that creating art seems to slow life down in a way and allows me to get to know myself in a way that hasn’t been possible before. That seems to be the key to why I paint…who is this part of me that has been hidden for most of my life? I want to know her better.
As somewhat of an introvert, I believe marketing can be challenging. My art feels so personal, that perhaps it is easy to love the process too much and create lots of art and not to plan for the marketing part of my work. Joining the art communities that exist in New Smyrna Beach has helped me engage with the public, and to answer questions about my process as an artist. There is little more fulfilling than experiencing your art through the eyes of your collectors.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Searching for what exists comes to mind. My paintings reflect the bright colors of my youthful experiences. While I work mainly in acrylics, I love to explore other mediums such as inks, oil pastels, and water based crayons and even collage. I love to paint expressively through layers of paint by adding and also subtracting paint. Big brush strokes and juicy colors excite me. I am not a planner, but instead work best reacting to the paint that has already been applied. I prefer to paint intuitively through layers and experimentation and love the idea that I never know how a piece will end up or what it has to say until it is finished.
Of course the subjects of my pieces reflect my love of animals and nature. Wild birds of Florida are often my favorite subjects: cardinals, owls, spoonbills, and painted buntings to name a few. Often my inspirations come from generous photographer friends photographs. But some of my favorite pieces have been dog commissions and even a very fun and active Bengal cat named Nigel as well as and an upcoming commission of beautiful pack horse named Grace Like Rain. It is always such a joy and pride to meet the animals and people behind the paintings that I will create and send out to the world.
I enjoy feeding the birds and have created a little sanctuary in my backyard for them. It is my hope that my work will provide joy and a sense of the beauty that surrounds us in nature. It is right there in front of us if we just take the time to look and hopefully see the need to protect. Creating more abstract landscapes is pulling at my heartstrings for the future. So much to discover!
So I love being part of an art community that brings us together in many ways. I display and sell my art at a unique, local gallery called The Hub on Canal, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful art community as The Hub on Canal where 60+ artists come together to share their stories, friendships, and art. At the Hub on Canal you will find music events, classes, art outreach programs and so much more. You will find me painting live there on the 1st Saturday of each month. You can also attend my Talk Art the 1st Saturday in November at The Hub on Canal and learn more about my process. Of course, I would love for you to come in and say hello.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/deborahmongatoart
- Facebook: Deborah Mongato Art
- Email: Mongato1@gmail.com
- Artist @ The Hub on Canal 132 Canal Street, New Smyrna Beach, Fl
