Aldo Longo
Like most artists, I have been influenced by my environment and culture.
In my case, there have been three distinct periods of my life.
First, my upbringing in a traditional Italian family in Connecticut, which influenced the style and form of my work;
secondly the two years I spent in Japan, which not only revised my earlier influences, but introduced me to a new culture and philosophy;
and thirdly, the years that I spent in Northern California, both in San Francisco and Sonoma County, which brought me closer to my natural surroundings as well as to a newer and unbound culture.
All of my work incorporates those influences, but the foundation has always been my close affinity to nature.
Not a representation of nature but rather my feelings of and response to it.
The shapes and colors digested and reformed to reflect my reaction to the spirit of the trees, rocks, hills, and waterways from which I create my forms.
I use the vibrant colors to express the life flow within my ecological surroundings, which is the substance of all natural things.
Some of the canvases are shaped so that the viewer may perceive the forms from different perspectives within the same work, just as it might be viewed in real life.
The backgrounds blend, flow and intertwine with the forms, like wind or fog, caressing and sweeping, undulating through and beyond.
Beginning with only the slightest idea of the forms I intuitively reshape them, changing the colors as I proceed;
almost akin to the changing colors and appearance of the foliage seen from a path through woods, mountains or along the seashore at different times of the day or different seasons.
These works are not meant to be a representation or reflection of nature but rather the sense of it’s spirt and energy.
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