 wayne rosetti wayne rosetti ray sat 7262014 2227 wayne l rosetti sr the passion to create pulses in the heart of those born to be artists from the moment the spark ignited in his soul wayne rosetti sr set his life goal on fulfilling that need delving into ever changing ventures of artistic moods and styles for sixty years this drive has filled his home with rarely viewed masterpieces and set the stage for his firstever commercial venture the world of loop people  wayne lynn jacob rosetti was born in biloxi mississippi on january 23 1937 and raised on point cadet his parents george rosetti 19091981 and edna mary melvin rosetti 19141979 partowners of a restaurant named rosetti poor boys at the ocean springs bridge like many children of that era he helped out at the restaurant during his teenage years until graduation from biloxi high school in 1954 as a 15year old biloxi teen wayne commenced weight training and has continued such his entire life with very little down time he was a pioneer at biloxi in body building with homemade weights he is proud that his weight training produced amazing results from protein and milk with no supplements or steroids pictures of a young wayne rosetti are included  a more mature wayne  wayne matriculated to the university of southern mississippi in hattiesburg that fall but his college career was cut short by a chance encounter in his fourth month a friend reported he was getting ready to join the army wayne decided to drop out of school to serve his country too and by the way take advantage of the gi bill tuition benefits on his return after obtaining his parents permission he launched a threeyear army stint army life provided sufficient down time for wayne to engage in his favorite activity reading his diverse interests ran to both fiction and nonfiction especially history near the end of his stent he went into town on leave and saw the movie lust for life with kirk douglas this show about the life of vincent van gough included a scene with van gough s brother theo an art dealer vincent couldn t sell many of his paintings so they accumulated at his brother s apartment presenting a habitation loaded with paintings the scene touched something inside wayne and at that moment he decided he wanted to be a painter prior to that inspiration he d never had that feeling nor had there been a painter in the family while in town he bought a sketchbook pencils and a paperback book with an introduction to art whose first rule stated sketch everything he took that to heart his first sketches were of his combat boots and towel on his bunk the results pleased him enough that he soon graduated to cardboard canvas and an inexpensive oil painting set at the time he was stationed in texas and upon attending a bullfight went back to the base and painted his first large piece the fight and found himself gratified with his results discharged from service in 1957 he returned home searching for a job that would give him time to paint his uncle owned a wholesale plumbing and electric supply on howard ave and suggested he go into the family trade with credit given by his uncle he rented a small building on 25th ave and hung a homemade sign in two years he was doing so well he moved his business rosetti supply co into a larger space on 28th st once the business was established he found he had spare time to devote to his art in december 1964 he married his one and only helen bates from the very beginning she had a strong influence on his art wayne consulting her on such things as color choices their marriage has survived happily to this day with two grown successful offspring in the late 1960s he discovered an art shop in edgewater mall that sold him clay for sculpting similar to his painting he decided he would pursue his sculpture without any formal training my first one a frog came out so well i wanted to do more wayne recalled next i created a seal just from memory  lion in gold he found he could rely on the pictures in his mind for both his sculpture and his painting even for complex scenes such as running water one of his earliest animals painted from memory is his lion in gold   in the late sixties wayne developed new ideas about how to approach his art beginning with research into the masters and their techniques this was a compromise he made based on his decision not to go to formal training his concern being possible contamination of his ideas from the standard education he said i wanted all my art to come from within another decision he made around this time was to continue to change his media and his subjects he reports having read that most artists become known for one particular type of art and especially if that form becomes popular nine out of ten of those artists won t deviate from the style that s responsible for their income  horse and boy consequently wayne focused on constant experimentation i would not limit myself to any type of material he said i d even use iodine shoe polish anything to make it expansive if i developed new techniques i would emulate it with another one i progressed from lion in gold to horse and boy  same background palette and technique i d do a series of that work implementing extensions in color and subject matter he said he wouldn t implement a new technique until he felt he d exhausted all aspects of the current one wayne s subjects varied depending on his mood commonly a historical theme or something from nature such as an animal he was striving for an art with a universal perspective topics resistant to dating as he matured he concentrated on what leonardo da vinci described as gesture like the position of the hand or the smile of the face the details that set the theme for the rest of the painting  holy man in his holy man  he wanted to incorporate two of the essential parts of religion compassion and humility he chose a dark palate and emphasized the themes with the man s expression and posture wayne s palate tends to be consistently dark often based on burnt umber so much so that a relative described it as typical of a medievalist  the four horsemen of the apocalypse wayne remembers his first large painting commissioned by his brother who was inspired by edward hicks 1834 painting peaceable kingdom this was in the early 1960s when large canvas was difficult to come by requiring having the canvas specially made after completing the work he was so taken with the theme he created a similar one for his own home during his early career selling opportunities were rare with few local galleries and only the occasional small art show though his portfolio was beginning to grow even those opportunities he rarely explored for he felt reluctant to try to sell when you show your art work he said you show how you feel and expose your inner self later on i learned that some people will like it and some won t in my youth i thought every piece had to be a masterpiece they don t even so each one must be redeemable art in its own right like most inspired talents his production has been prolific though not necessarily continuous his usual workdays were eight hours sometimes longer he reports short bursts of creativity worn down by concentration and determination of placing the art the colors and the contrast at times he d take a leave of absence from painting feeling burnt out after a break i d be inspired by a comment or something i d seen sometimes a visual musical or literary allusion would inspire him andrew lloyd weber s phantom of the opera inspired one piece another inspiration came from the biblical reference to the the four horsemen of the apocalypse those were all those destructive forces striving to overwhelm mankind my approach was to project how man comes facetoface with those forces but with the help of nature can win the battle in the midst of all that destruction he assesses his style as a mix often merging impressionistic realistic and primitive styles in a form where they could all gel he loved experimenting with new forms working with them until they d been assimilated into his work around his home he pointed to different pieces and described their technique naive minimalist outsider art this latter is the concept of painting like somebody who has had no formal training and thus creating a unique approach to art pieces of this type have for example exaggerated heads done with a personal interpretation assemblage developed from this form i was quite taken with picasso for quite awhile klee also an influence  the ram in describing his sculptures wayne likes to base the forms on realism such as the ram  however though based on realism he liked to exaggerate the forms giving them a whimsical look providing each its own personality thus they re created not from a real life but more my interpretation of the life in my paintings i put the animals in appealing poses though they may not look like real life it might even be better than what real life can portray   figure 8   i brought that approach to my sculpture i was interested in animals and nature and how to be creative in my interpretations i studied primitive sculpture like in african art and new guinea art where exaggerated forms have real meaning to them it becomes very striking when you see them for the sculptures skeletons known as the armature he utilized everyday things such as empty cola bottles statue in green and gold  figure 9  is three parts a brick a sculptured bird and an upside down whiskey bottle wayne described his concept in regards to one of his early paintings the warrior a warrior always carried death on his shoulder that s the only way to be brave enough to go into battle i had him facing death and he was facing him with his shield up going to face death once he had the work created he took it to a hotel that was allowing local artists to hang their work for sale when he showed it to the curator she didn t believe he had painted it saying it was too good refusing to hang it wayne s work is most remarkable for almost never having been shown he just kept hanging each new piece on a blank spot on the wall until his house seemed completely filled up the one exception to that history came about serendipitously when in 1994 a repairman came by to fix wayne s old grandfather clock when the man was inside the house he was fascinated by all the paintings he had heard the owners of a new furniture store were looking for an artist to show in conjunction with their opening this resulted in his fifteen minutes of fame when dave elliot from wlox came to the home to film and interview at one point dave elliot asked what do your children think of your art my children grew up around art wayne replied so it wasn t a big thing it was just something that dad did basically they simply enjoyed it wayne took forty of his paintings to the furniture opening resulting in thousands of views brought in by the television spot and other advertisements the show lasted a month and during that period wayne sold three of his works that ended up being his only show and consequently his only sales fifty years of painting and only three sales wayne s plans to forever keep his talent private were challenged in 2010 when his soninlaw roger applewhite saw wayne s art roger was so taken he told wayne he really needed to have people see it he also suggested wayne come up with something completely new something marketable analyzing his work wayne came up with the concept of the loop he realized he d always used a loop in his art he decided to create the total facial structure with a loop executed from a low starting point looping up to do the nose the eyes and then down to do the mouth without stopping it had to be fluid and had to be accurate once completed he admired the result what he describes as great an abstract modern theme as a preparation for the loop people wayne experimented with bandaids using them to form a body on paper and adding human characteristics the object of art is to alter your perspective on how you look at things sometimes everyday things he explained after that work i ll never look at bandaids the same way again i framed the bandaid work and that set me on a quest to show how innovative i could develop art with this loop concept his experimentation with loops began to take off with an initial 10 ft x 20 ft creation made on four separate canvasses and now hanging in his son s home he progressed from the basic loop format to adding smaller loops to it his forms developed from simple nude humans to animals such as a baby pig and a rhino for this work he used very bright colors different than his past dark palates the concept of the loop people became to make everything in it out of loops this inspired a whole alternate universe different landscapes and unique forms soon he added scenes volleyball playing frisbee with a dog crab and pier fishing for the commercial aspect he wanted drawings with a broad appeal whimsical lighthearted and fun   figures 10 11   it s been a remarkable career for this lifelong artist from wayne rosetti s first sketches of army boots and painting of a bullfighter through scores of years learning new styles and techniques he has finally come full circle to a lighthearted modernism or should we say fullloop as his new delightful creations so well show  lagniappe seventysixyearold wayne rosetti has been painting since the age of twenty producing more than a thousand remarkable pieces this exclusive sampling of his life s work is a mustsee demonstrating his experimentation with multiple styles and media inspirations from van gogh picasso and da vinci draw attention with their fetching golden colors and demanding images religious influences with iconoclastic representations such as animal kingdom from the bible and holy man mix with africanstyle sculptures rosetti is experiencing a new wave of creative energy encouraged by his soninlaw roger applewhite wayne used found objects from applewhite s collection for new sculpture designs inspired by these new materials wayne taught himself to weld on youtube crafting yard art he repurposed old circuit boards bringing them to life as colorful characters combined scrap metal parts from ship parts into clever table top sculptures and he gave life to the loop people a modern abstract interpretation based on the concept of a single structured loop the object of art is to alter your perspective on how you look at things sometimes everyday things wayne explains initially representing people by adding features to single loops the work progressed to multiple loops of various sizes from simple nude humans to wild and domesticated animals including puppies pigs and even a rhino the eyecatching appeal of this work is heightened by the spectrum of imaginative themes displayed in bright contrasting colors wayne rosetti s captivating new art theme the loop people will be unveiled november 2 and 3 at the 2013 peter anderson festival in rosetti park created by roger and vicki applewhite the large tented area will feature wayne rosetti s captivating new art theme the loop people in a venue the applewhites call a muse market select artists will showcase their work in a venue of live music and a portable gallery featuring over forty years of never before seen original wayne rosetti artwork this temporary showcase is a prelude to the rosetti gallery that is expected to open in ocean springs on cox avenue in mid 2014 stay tuned for updates on biloxiartistscom  2021 wayne s world as it was one of helen s favorite it stayed on our wall as the offer was in the thousands i looked for an app more suitable for artist and came across instagram i also at the time started doing digital art i proceeded on a learning curve of both disciplines and became proficient at both  puppy love  helen s favorite nsf shortly there after i posted a drawing i had done of mother and child below and a fellow woman artist saw it and posted it to the instagram account of jerry saltz pulitzer prize winning art critic for the new york magazine afterwards he started following my post occasionaly jerry would highlight an artist and promote their art to his 350000 followers much to my delight he highlighted my art with this painting below which he liked very much much to my delight jerry saltz highlighted my art with this painting below which he liked very much from then on he would make favorable comments on a lot of my works  jerry saltz here are some post with his comment below including likes by his famous wife roberta smith art critic for the new york times also included are my portraits of jerry and roberta  jerry saltz and roberta smith   comments  as i met more artist on instagram one stand out artist was matthew wong who we exchanged likes on our respective sites he was becoming a well known after a sellout exhibition in new york as we exchanged comments on our art i was truly impressed with his art later i found out he was very depressed and committed suicide it shocked the whole art world as a tribute i did a digital art work in honor of his memory image below a tribute to matthew wong mr wong is standing on the crossover bridge to his shrine on left everyone was sad for days after such a loss i met and made some very talented and amazing people on instagram too many to mention here from then on i became very familiar with the new york art market and adjusted my art and perspective to expand my work a couple of highlights one of my pieces made the back cover of cocoa magazine journal of cornell contemporary arts image below another request i had was from an artist who liked the image on one of my carved ceramic plates and ask my permission to have the image tattooed on his arm which i told him that would be an honor image below to sum up my laste endeavor was to emulate some great masters one is the hag tribute to goya image below the other eve a special work done for roger applewhite a fellow artist and my soninlaw and a tribute to lucas cranach the elder image below  references  the daily herald biloxi news paragraphs rosetti baptism january 8 1937 870 views  