Tennessee Crossroads Celebrates Artist Salvatore Palazzolo`s 101st Birthday

Tennessee Crossroads will profile and celebrate the birthday of Hendersonville artist Salvatore Palazzolo this week and weekend. Palazzolo, who turns 101 on January 31, will be featured on the venerable travel show airing on Thursday, January 28, at 7:00 p.m. and again on the artist’s birthday, Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. on NPT-Channel 8.

Palazzolo’s work is currently being exhibited at the Starbucks Coffee in Hendersonville, located at 201A Main Street. The store is open Sunday – Thursday 5:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m. The exhibit runs until Sunday, January 31.

Palazzolo was born on January 31, 1909 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in San Francisco, California and attended Stanford University and the San Francisco School of Art and Watercolors, where he studied under well-known Carmel, California artist Stanley Wood.

He began painting in his twenties and found beauty in objects that unobservant eyes would deem drab. He loves old wooden fences, finds rich color in sordid looking factories, and sees the poetry in abandoned, decaying cars. He relates, he says, first and foremost, “to art in its relationship of maker to object.”

According to his artist’s statement, his work “begins with a vision or idea, perhaps at the merest threshold of definition and with the materials necessary to give it form.” He then tries to “sustain the dialogue among these elements necessary to bring his work to fruition, the fullest possible realization of his intention – by the very nature of the task,” which is something only he can ultimately judge.

“I paint because I am compelled to paint. I can’t tell people what to see in my artwork or what to think of my artwork.”

Sal’s work has been exhibited at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The San Francisco Museum of Art and the Santa Cruz Art League. He exhibited at the Golden Gate International Exposition, which was the official opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1940, and participated in San Francisco’s first Open Air Art Show in 1941. He is represented by the Gallery Beaux Arts in San Francisco.

Palazzolo moved with his wife Marie to Hendersonville in 1990 and began oil painting. He soon joined the Hendersonville Arts Council where he won first prize and numerous other awards in the annual art shows there. He also had an exhibition at the Mario’s Restaurant Dinner and Wine tasting benefitting the Childhelp USA foundation in Nashville. He paints for several hours each day; his bright, oversized and brilliant paintings embodying the spirit, energy and talent of someone with no intention of slowing down. He is already planning art exhibitions for 2011.

As he tell aspiring artists, “… keep going, keep moving.”