Michael Joseph Grasso

I was born in Rome, NY and if you've never heard of it it's about halfway between Albany and Syracuse. I grew up in Sacramento however, and it was there that I began my career in the film business. By the mid-seventies I had opened Grasso Productions, Inc. and by the early 80's the company had moved and was based in New York City where for decades I continued directing commercials for most of the major advertising accounts in the world. Over the years I had the opportunity to work with a number of top celebrities. My first feature film, co-written and co-produced with my brother and directed by me is titled "The Umbrella Man" and is now available on Amazon and iTunes. The film garnered several first place awards in various film festivals. My first love, however, has always been fine art. One day, long before I began my career in film, I was wandering through a Sacramento book store and came across a collection of works by Rene Magritte. There on the cover was the painting entitled "Time Transfixed". Well, I stood there, transfixed, for what must have been an hour. It was as though a door had opened onto a potentially limitless landscape of ideas. The notion of seeing things "outside the box" of everyday reality became f...

I began my film career soon after graduation from high school. At that time practical experience seemed to trump a formal education so I jumped at the opportunity to go to work and learn film craft from the ground up in a real world environment.

My education in art, I'm proud to say, came from Gary Pruner. A well known Sacramento based artist who was teaching high school art at the time and was part of the area's art movement that included folks like Wayne Thiebaud, Ralph Goines and Larry Foster. Gary really nurtured the desire I had to explore new and different ways of seeing and representing reality.

I'll be on exhibit at The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles March 28-31.