Artist's Statement Welcome To My Art. To gain insight into my work, you must first take a tempestuous voyage into my visions. I am fascinated by the treacherous resemblance between reality and illusion. I am also conscious of a poetic desire to bring into question the irrational, absurd, and the taboo of society. I question the most fundamental of beliefs and confront the masses when they would rather turn away. There is nothing more pure in life than a canvas waiting to be brought to life by a fury of precision brushstrokes with images of nothing more than concrete irrationality. I believe that as artists, it is up to us to create our own sense of reality. In an age of social and political upheavel, the artist is an anomaly. As creators, we are capable of manipulating the viewer by the stroke of a brush.I paint to live; the canvas is my skin, the paints are my blood, and my brush is the key that unlocks my mind. Caniglia's Art My paintings are wondrous strange hues of my fragmented mind. They may seem traditional in style; nonetheless, they are radical in content, bold and forceful in imagery. I bathe in the reservoir of the poor and oppressed. My statements , like my clear and articulate brush strokes, are sharp, uncompromising, and somber. My vision has always been earthbound with human vulnerability and death at its core. I am just a witness to the truth of my brush. People are so eager to categorize your art with a movement, but to me, a movement is just a trend or a fad. My art is not a fad, so I belong to no movement, only for the people as their witness and storyteller. Caniglia's History It was Einstein who said, "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world!" This quote represents how I feel about my education in and out of the arts. I really fell into the arts, or maybe I should say that the arts fell into my imagination. The art virus was always there, but I really did not know how to tap into it until my junior year in high school. I got kicked out of band, and I really did not care, but then I was forced to take an art class. It was a dream come true. I could not believe that a two - dimensional surface could become three - dimensional with the stroke of a pencil. It was incredible to see the emotional reactions of people to something I drew or painted. I now had the power to irritate, manipulate, or motivate. I continued my education in art at Iowa State University, where I received my B.F.A. in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking in 1993. I was lucky enough to study under a great artist named Brenda Jones. She taught me a lot about art, but even more about life. She showed me how my talent, if used right, could fight against oppression and educate the masses, who are blind most of the time. After achieving my B.F.A.,I continued my education at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where I received my M.F.A. in Fine Art in 1995. I studied under the great Grace Hartigan, who is one of the greatest abstract expressionists to come out of the 1950's. Even though my work is a form of realism, it is all abstraction when it comes down to making art. Most people do not realize this, but all art is the same. It is about you and staying true to your vision. I do not believe that you necessarily have to go through the education system to be a great artist. In my case, my education helped me realize that I have a gift, which I might not have used, had certain people not seen it and assisted me in extracting it from my psyche.