Michael Dirado

I was born in Italy and made the United States my home while still young. It was in high school that my interest in making art became a passion and my voice as an artist started to emerge while studying art in college. I moved to NYC right after college and spent ten years as a studio assistant for Al Held. I returned to Massachusetts after my time in New York and started teaching, eventually becoming the Art Director for the Abington Public Schools. My work has evolved and changed throughout the years and for the past two decades The landscape has held my interest. When I relocated from New York City to a coastal town in Massachusetts I became aware and fascinated by the expanse of sky and the horizon line where water or land meets sky. During the past few years my viewpoint has often gravitated upward or downward, away from the horizon line. I do not know if this is a conscious effort on my part to remove a sense of footing or place. My paintings are usually created in the studio from memory and I do not often paint directly from nature. Rather, I use the images observed and gathered throughout my daily activities. These stored images become the catalyst, the starting points, but it is the act of applying paint in the st...

Massachusetts College of Art & Design (Boston)
Pratt Institute (Brooklyn NY)