Stella Scarano

Biography and Artist Statement by Francesco Bonifazi – Stella Scarano Bonifazi’s eldest son.

My name is Francesco Bonifazi, and my mother was a well-known and respected artist whose professional and maiden name was Stella Scarano. Mom was intimately involved with the art scene in Central New York and beyond. She painted almost continuously up until she suffered multiple strokes, which left her physically unable to paint, but it never stopped her from looking at everything she saw as a subject for a future project. For Mom, art and life were inseparable. Stella started her art journey attending the Traphagen School in NYC. Traphagen was later incorporated into the nearby Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in 1991. After earning her degree there, she returned to Utica and began working as the art director for the J. B. Wells Department Store in Downtown Utica. This was in the late 1940s. She was responsible for all the ads placed in local media.

Most only know Stella as a modern, abstract artist, but I’ve seen several of her early ads and they were highly realistic and detailed drawings, which were the norm for ads in newspapers at the time as they were just black and white publications. I also remember her painting portraits in our living room with the subject under bright flood lights my Dad had set up. We had to be quiet those evenings. My Dad, Truman was Stella’s right-hand man, and did everything from stretching new canvases, prepping them with “Gesso”, and framing the final artwork., and shipping them off to exhibits nationwide and internationally. He was always under assignments from my Mom, but somehow found time for his own painting and photography passions. I I remember her telling me “An artist needs to start with realistic art, and only relax their focus on likeness and venture into abstract art, after developing their basic skills. Otherwise, they aren’t in control of their art.

”Mom stopped working outside the home when she had her first child – me in 1955! J. B. Wells went out of business soon afterwards (1964). I don’t think she missed the deadlines and lacked freedom creating art for ads. I don’t know exactly when she started to explore her own abstract style, but I believe it was in the late 1940s/early 1950s when she studied under artists who had studied with Hans Hoffman in NYC.

There was a thriving art scene in Utica back then and a diverse, healthy economy supported a growing city of 110,000 inhabitants. Several other Utica artists were also connected to NYC modern art movement, but Mom was totally committed to it. Her very earliest abstract paintings weren’t complex collages or construction pieces and were very dark and rough. Not at all like her later works. As a child I remember her moving to larger and more dramatic paintings which could take over a whole wall. Not due to size alone, but because they commanded your attention. Mom was very proud of her many prizes, awards, museum and gallery shows and purchases, as well as inclusion in private collections. But probably her proudest achievement was being selected for the cover art of a major science magazine. They needed art for their upcoming issue about atomic energy, and this piece she already had created fit this theme best of all for them. She was probably happiest about not having to compromise her art for this achievement, unlike her days in advertising. Unfortunately, the painting's name was not on the back as was common for my Dad to add. Especially for works exhibited in places where she did not accompany them to the show. So, we don’t know the name of this painting. This painting is an example of her Mid-Career, Paint-Only Period. You can see lighter elements coming out of the darkness of her earlier period. Scarano’s Painting interpreted as “Atomic Energy Reaction” Mom was a wonderful teacher of art in many ways and to many audiences, from local colleges and public schools, private students and her own children.

We got art lessons by attending museums all over the northeast where she was our private tour guide explaining the history of Picasso and Matisse and many others. No family vacation was complete without a trip to the local art museum from Boston to Buffalo to NYC. We even went to gallery openings in NYCs that sold her works. It wasn’t uncommon to meet famous people at these events, from speech writers for presidents to other artists such as Andrew Wyeth. It was a special way to grow up, even if none of us went into careers as artists. Of course, we would attend every major event at the local Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art. And to have so many major artists in their permanent collection was a treat for us. I can recall sitting in front of a large Jackson Pollock painting there and asking her what this could be about? She educated me that abstract art is a personal interpretation, and none are right or wrong.

To both of my parents, visual arts were not an isolated or a superior form of art. Music was as important to them as painting, sculpting, and photography. Music’s role in both influencing and reflecting modern art was a cherished belief of theirs. Jazz and its connections with multiple modern art movements were something we learned from them. There was always music playing in our home, especially after family meals – be it Jazz, Classical, Rock and more. I believe this inspired their artwork. And Mom had an unrelenting work ethic when it came to her art. She often worked through the night, only to call us down into her basement studio in the morning to see what she had created and provide feedback. The smell of paints and solvents permeated the air in the house on those mornings, signaling to us that she was at work when we were snug in our beds. She valued our feedback as if we were major art critics. This was a mutual respect that gave us a wonderful feeling of being appreciated.

Her periods of painting and construction weren’t linear, meaning they weren’t concise periods, but rather there were transitions between one to the next over time, and even revisits of aspects of previous periods, as she experimented with new subjects and techniques.

The main periods of Stella Scarano’s artwork were:

1. Early Career - highly realistic drawings (both pen & ink, and pencil) and commissioned portrait paintings.

2. Early dark abstract paintings of small to medium sizes

3. Mid-career abstract paintings with organic textures and structures

4. Mid-career abstract collages using elements of print media, especially advertisements.

5. Later mid-career of big formats, using bold 3D elements of wood, metal and other discarded materials integrated with paints of contrasting colors.

6. Later career found a return to paintings and smaller formats, integrating her religious thoughts using angels, gravestones, as well as horses and more common motifs.

International Exposure and Acclaim

In the summer of 1984 Mom had a one-person-show in the hometown of her father named Massafra, Italy. Mom had visited there once before in the 1970s and found it to be a magic place which left an imprint on her heart and her art. She was introduced to a wealthy industrialist who was very interested in promoting art in this region of southern Italy. Most of the art was the domain of the large cities in the north at that time. They stayed in communication for over a decade until he proposed an exhibit of her works in one of his large unused manufacturing office spaces. Planning for and coordinating this event was a challenge for Mom and Dad who both attended the opening. My Mom was delighted to be able to return as a professional artist to Massafra and help promote the art scene there with young artists who were more interested in modern art than the older generation. To think that her father had come to America around 1920 and established himself here, married, had two children, and raised them both without a mother (she died when my Mom was very young). This was like coming full circle for my mother who learned the local dialect of the Bari region from her American relatives who also immigrated to America. When she went to Italy, only the elders could understand her non-formal Italian language, which made it seem to them like my Mom was from a time past and had returned in a time-capsule! Not only that, but she was also articulate in abstract art, which was yet another odd thing to most of her relatives there. The show was a success and my parents often talked about how well they were treated -like foreign dignitaries from the USA. I’d say they represented our country very well indeed!

When I visited Massafra in 2000 many of my relatives talked about how proud they were of “Stellina.” I had lunch with the philanthropist and his family who funded the exhibit, but we also talked about engineering issues he and his sons were trying to solve. We bonded on technology as well as art. I wrote my composition named Massafra one night in the local inn when inspiration woke me at 4am and compelled me to pick up my little travel guitar and compose something special about this magical place of pre-medieval castles, caves, grottos and ravines “gravenes.” as they’re called in Italian. There’s even ancient art on the walls of some of these caves.

There is no doubt that Mom’s visits to Italy were inspirational to her new works of art. I can see elements of it in places that suggest a time past, and a different culture. Example artwork painted on Cave walls in Massafra combining visual and auditory arts. In 2005, I used one of Mom’s construction pieces as a perfect backdrop for the cover art of my Air Play Jazz music release. It’s quite different for her in that she glued canvas onto a backing of weathered barnwood planks, and then added a horizontal, painted, jagged piece of wood across the middle. Again, we see her fascination with imitating and enhancing 3D with several painted shadows.

Wrapping It All Up...

In summary of Mom’s art, I can honestly say that art was as important as breathing air to her. She could not imagine NOT doing art every day. When she was stricken with multiple strokes that left her at first physically impaired, and later also mentally damaged, she missed making art most of all. I spent time with her where we jointly drew on a sheet of single paper, by taking turns adding to an initial curved line. Art grew out of this. She knew this wasn’t the same as when she was fully able, but she enjoyed this simple exercise because it was a creative endeavor for her. Anyone who knew my mother, would know of her using her hands to “frame a scene” to see if it could be captured mentally in a more aesthetic way. No subject was spared the “hand framing” exercise. And those same hands would then often be offered to total strangers who she thought could use some encouragement and some informal art education in the hopes it might inspire them and brighten their lives somehow.

Stella Scarano
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