A Mini Biographical Look Into John Castagno

Who Am I? And Why Am I Who I Am?

I am one of the furtunate persons to have reached the age of 78 and still going strong in what I do. I look back over my years and see a multifaceted life, a life that even astounds me in retrospect.

Briefly, My First Sixteen Years

I was the youngest of eleven children; most of my brothers and sisters were from previous marriages of my parents whose spouses died during the terrible worldwide flu epidemic….sadly, just me and one full sister survive today. My mother died when I was 13, and my father cared for me into my adult life. We were a poor hard working family, never complaining, never saying we were poor, never jealous or envious of others…..just living our lives. My Parents were caring and loving and self sacrificing parents, never scolding or hitting me. Early on, many tragedies touched our lives.

When I was one year old our family home burned down. When I was six, my favorite brother unexpectedly died in a hospital. One year later one of my sisters was giving birth to her first child in marriage, and died through the negligence of the doctors. They forcibly held an ether mask on her face while she was vomiting, and she choked to death. They were able to save her child.

In retrospect, I guess my young years spared me a lot of the pain my parents must have endured. I was a happy child, never having much, and never wanting much. My mother took me everywhere she went. In the summer she would take me bathing to Red Bank, NJ, and trips to the city zoo in open air trolley cars. She was beautiful, with long black hair that she wore in a bun; her skin was clear and smooth like porcelain. I was with her when she died in our home from a stroke…..those last moments and my words to her are forever embedded in my heart and memory.

I’m now 14 and I change from catholic school to public school because of some improper advances of a priest; I never chose to go public with it. I’m now 15 and one of my brothers was murdered. I’m now 16, and another brother is murdered. Each time, my poor father had to go to the morgue to identify them, in their blood spattered state…..what a trauma, what a horrible experience. My poor “Pop”, my heart still aches for you. Eventually the police stated that my brothers were innocent victims of an organized crime gang called “Murder, Inc.” through forensic tests of the bullets.

1947 to 1960

My father ran a small house painting and brick pointing business. I left school in the eleventh grade to work full time with my father. We worked steady, but the income was nominal; we worked all season, borrowing to live through the winter, and paying off the loans in the spring. But somehow, we always managed and never complained. My father was a gentle man of strong character, he was my best friend. Our brick pointing business became the best residential business, often being recommended by the Philadelphia Historical commission.

I had many neighborhood friends during my teen years; always having a girlfriend or a crush on someone. We always had simple and clean fun, never fighting with each other. At 19 I fell in love and went steady for four years; but I broke it off one month before our wedding date after gradually realizing it would have been a mistake.

I was always artistically inclined, making drawings for the nuns during my parochial school days. At age 22 I wrote a play and the words to the musical score; friends of mine collaborated on the music. We came very close to producing it, but did not raise enough money. Years later a music company sent us small royalty checks for using some of my songs during their tour of Japan.

During the next eight years I gradually strayed from my neighborhood friends and went about life as a loner. I enrolled in several art schools in the late 1950s, and became a serious painter by 1960.

1960 was the beginning of a major turn around in my life, for the solidifying of my character, my morals, and my value as a human being.

1960-1980

I became good friends with a wonderful woman artist, Elaine Dubrow; she was a great influence in my early paintings. About 1963, I enrolled in the Barnes Foundation’s two year course for art appreciatio, and it remains a major influence in my art and how I look at art.

My father retired from the business, and I continued with it with a childhood friend that had worked with us since the late 1940s. Then in 1967 my father passed away. I miss him terribly, I loved him deeply, I dream of him often.

The late 1960s were tumultuous years with the Vietnam war and the social revolution. Like all Americans, it had some impact on me. I produced two paintings based on the colors and design of the American Flag…..done solely on emotion and inspiration, with no conscious understanding as to “Why” until a year later when everything surfaced from my subconscious. I took my first trip to Europe in 1969, for a month…..and early on during this trip I found myself apologizing for being an American because of the war and our social upheavals…..but towards the end of my trip there was a complete reversal of feelings. I looked at the many countries I was visiting and saw that they were like “Ostriches, hiding their heads in the sands regarding their own problems, but anxious and willing to criticize us.” I revolted against them. I suddenly became a very proud American because we were not a complacent nation but rather a nation that dealt “openly” with our problems: I loved America, I love our Flag.

When I returned I went headlong into making my paintings based on the American flag; making social, political, and nostalgic comments on ways of American life. This solo exhibition of my art traveled around America for three years after its first exhibit at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was a major success with many good reviews.

My original schedule was worldwide, but circumstances seem to indicate that the FBI and the CIA were in collusion to scuttle my exhibits…..so I secretly rescheduled my exhibit tours to outwit them. The mentality of the FBI and CIA at that particular time was: You only wave the flag, any other way of using it was “Anti-American”….. Give me a break!

I continued to paint our flag up to 1976, and had seven simultaneous solo-exhibits that year.

During the 1970s I became an art dealer, buying, collecting and selling art. I started donating art, annually, since 1973 to museums and other public institutions. In the late 1970s I took many cruise trips in the Carribean and South America, and the Mediterranean as a guest speaker on art.

1980-2000

During one of my South American cruises I became very friendly with a wealthy New York man, Jerry Cohen, who loved buying art but had no understanding as to how to research art. We remained good friends after the cruise and I advised him on how to go about building a good research library. I was very much into research and had a large storage of unpublished information and I would give him some of it from time to time. Then one day he suggested I should write a book; that was the spark that started me writing……within a year I was working six books simultaneously. By 1990 three books were published, and three others during the 1990s.

As I look back I am thankful and feel fortunate that I turned my life around to become a worthwhile and giving human being, unselfish, never envious, and eternally optimistic. Despite being somewhat of a loner, I have made many strong friendships with good people of all ages who have values and character I can respect.

A Small Time-Out Break on Civic Events

I live on a wide Avenue/(State Highway) with two-way traffic. In early 1980 a private plumbing contractor cut a wide swath across the avenue, refilled it with dirt but no metal plates over it. Two way traffic distributed mud and dust up to our front doors for a city block in each direction. I called the city and state officers daily, for two weeks, to send metal plates to cover the trench until it was paved…..with no results….. So, I stopped traffic entirely on this busy street. Police came, and I would not budge; then a riot squad came and still I would not budge….I declared: “This inundation with dust is a health problem; and when the government fails to protect its citizens, then citizens have the right to protect themselves”, asserting my legal right to be there. The police agreed, and supplied me with barracades. Within 28 hours the city came and paved the trench. One up for correct civil disobedience!

I’ve lived in this same house since 1938. Just like my re-awareness of the American flag in 1970 I became re-aware of the look of my neighborhood…..a conceret jungle with not a tree in sight, but it had sixteen green utility poles to adorn our street. Over time I became angry and disheartened with this bleak look. Since then I have greened my neighborhood with more than fifteen in-ground trees and more than 120 large planters with evergreens curb-side and wall-side. Over the years I have paid for 90% of its cost, and I spend an average of ten hours a week cleaning the street and pavements, planting flowers in the summer, and watering every tree and planter. This greenery accomplishment has won several 1st and 2nd prizes in city contests.

At another point, the public transportation in this city started to paint their green utility poles white (but returned to green in later years.) After I had greened my neighborhood, they came along and painted all the poles white. I was furious; it was an aesthetic eye sore. I called, and complained, and was lucky to be speaking with someone who appreciated my complaint as valid. He sent his workmen back, just to my block, and had them repaint the poles green.

Lesson learned: When you’re absolutely sure you’re right, don’t back down.

Philanthropy

Earlier on I mentioned I have donated art since 1973 to museums and other public institutions. I’ve been focusing strongly on Villanova University, helping to build their collectinon, getting them many donators which have greatly expanded their collection. I’m now their appraiser for all new art acquisitions.

During the last major earth quake in the early 1980s in Southern Italy, I spent two months collecting aid for my father’s small home town. I handled it directly, no middle men. I sent 1,000+ lbs. of clothing, tents, space heaters, toys, shoes, building tools, as well as $3,000 of my own money.

2000-2006: The Years of Corporate Dishonesty and Empty Words

My reputation as an artist signature expert is now firmly established around the world. My publisher showed great interest for creating a web site of my work, agreeing to all my terms since I own the electronic rights to all my books. After a year and a half of negotiations, contracts were sent to me with totally unacceptable terms. I canceled any further web site talks and told my publisher to just continue only publishing my books. A year and a half of my precious life, at age 74, wasted on dishonesty.

Art Price, a large web site based in Paris, contacted me with an interest in using my work on their site. After some initial conversations it was obvious they were trying to scam me. I broke all contact with them.

I approached Art Net, the biggest artist website in the world, and had a board meeting with them in New York. They liked my work, and the idea of having a special category of my work on their website. They said I would have to wait a year before they could start on my project because they had to finish work on other projects. I agreed to wait, no contract, taking them at their word. After waiting a year, they tell me they are further involved in other projects and I would have to wait another eighteen months “with no guarantee.” I said no more waiting, I’ll do my own website.

Another year of my precious life wasted on empty words…

In the meantime I was in contact with AskArt, a website on American Artists. They said they were willing to make a connecting link to my website once it got operating.

A dear friend of mine, who is a good businessman, had been asking me to have him fund the organizing of my website. I finally agreed to give it a try; and I’m completely satisfied that I did. We hired two very young computer wizards, Justine and Matt, who proved phenomenal in their expertise. My dear friend, Tony, has given nearly two years of dedicated time overseeing the project and working on it himself. We now have a four way ownership/partnership in the website. No other concern would have organized and designed this site as thoroughly. Visit us on our site: www.ArtistsSignatures.com.

In the meantime I had four more books published. Art News Magazine also published a great article about me and my work in their December 2007 issue. Sotheby’s included my book brochures in their mailed catalogs. Auction houses all around the world send me complimentary painting catalogs for further use in my work. I’m now firmly established around the world.

Finally, Ask Art was starting to use some of my artists’ signatures without my permission. They had decided to begin to include my signatures on their site. I put a stop to them using my signatures. They wanted to negotiate. They made some sillly offers which amounted to their “free use” of my work. We negotiated further, with my offering them a connecting link with monetary rewards for them. The response was total silence.

So, this is the business world!! Say anything, do anything, have no conscience.

2008: Looking At Myself

I’m far from being monetarily secure, but I continue as alway, giving art, giving spontaneous gifts to others; to my doctors, to my friends, to my many relatives in Italy, to my sister. Maybe there’s something subconsciously selfish about it all, but consciously I love giving with no expected return. I love knowing that in some way I am adding to the immortality of many artists that I record in my work. I love knowing, even for many years when I’m long gone, researchers will be thankful that I’ve recorded information that answers their needs. My books, my website, my unique way of presenting the American flag in my art are my legacies I will leave to the world.