#if elvis was an animal he would be a chipmunk

[doll-elvis]

the urge to squish his cheeks between my hands until his lips pucker 😩

[acehotel]

Serving America in the Right Direction: A Conversation with LAND Gallery artist Carlo Daleo

Carlo Daleo is a maestro extraordinaire of all trades — a painter, writer and animator, he’s been with LAND Gallery since their inception in 2005. His pieces often incorporate both text and image, drawing from his own storyboards and musical influences. The work, sensitive and graphic, is an in-depth investigation on how daily objects and an imaginative spirit can be the source of immense inspiration and connectivity. As part of Inside Job, a monthly artists’ profile series led by LAND Gallery’s Sophia Cosmadopoulos, Daleo discusses the weekly rituals that serve as part of his artistic practice, his ultimate New Yorker status and why he goes on annual Frank Sinatra pilgrimages.

LAND Gallery is a nonprofit art studio celebrating and supporting the work of adults living with intellectual disabilities.

Sophia Cosmadopoulos: Carlo, how are you?

Carlo Daleo: Hello Sophia, how do you do?

S: Would you like to introduce yourself?

C: Hello New York, my name is Carlo Daleo and I am sure you know me from the LAND Gallery and website and I am very glad to see that I am having this interview over there for the Ace Hotel and I am very glad to talk all about myself and what’s been going on with me recently as well as in the past.

S: Carlo, I have always considered you the ultimate New Yorker, why do you think you’ve earned that title?

C: Well, I am finally getting to the understanding that I have been around New York City all my life. I was born in Elmhurst, Queens in 1961. To tell you the actual truth is, that I was born and raised in Elmhurst but was educated in Brooklyn and I learned a lot of things in Brooklyn as well. But the true life of it is, Elmhurst Queens is my hometown. Then I lived in Bushwick, then Bayridge for 18 years, this is where the filming of Saturday Night Fever took place long before I came there. And now I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

S: You spend so much of your time exploring this city and you really seem to love it. My friends text me all the time with “Carlo sightings.” Where are some of your favorite places to visit?

C: Well to be honest with you, the places I usually go to is the Saint Francis Xavier Church right there on 16th street as well as the Flushing bank, the Starbucks in various locations including Brooklyn, New York, The Bronx and so much more. I go to 2 Brothers Pizza, because I know a lot of people there and they became my friends. I spend a lot of time eating sandwiches and salads on the weekend, absolutely.

S: What was it like growing up in New York?

C: Well, my childhood wasn’t always perfect, as a matter of fact. It was kind of almost a little bit difficult as it was then. I was a little bit too small to go around New York City by myself as a small child in the very beginning. Until decades later I finally grew up and I finally got around by myself, and I enjoyed it very very much, and I enjoy what I missed, and I have made up for my past misbehavior of what I was not allowed to do as a small child back then.

S: Right, I think that’s why you love New York so much, because it makes you feel free, right? You get to take yourself wherever you want to go?

C: Yeah, that’s what I have been doing all along, and I will continue to do for many more years to come.

S: And when did you first start making your art?

C: In 1966. Following the death of Walt Disney. That’s when I started drawing.

S: Ah ha. So you wanted to carry on Walt Disney’s legacy after his death by making your own work? C: That’s correct.

S: How long have you been attending LAND?

C: Well, about exactly 15 years.

S: Except LAND opened in 2005, so more like 13 years.

C: Right, 13 years.

S: What was LAND like when you first started?

C: Well it was when I started doing artwork on a regular basis. It looked like a real gallery and it looked like a real studio. I could do artwork all the time. It was different because they gave me a lot of things that I could do, of which most of my old treatment centers couldn’t give me.

S: Can you tell us about your artwork?

C: Well, my artwork is so important to me, as a matter of fact. And all these ideas came from my parts from the albums and the hosiery designs and the past and present and the cartoon characters I created and new ideas and things like that. In more recent times, I got my own ideas and they’re finally coming out of my head, and I’m going to try to see if I can deliver, if I have a chance.

S: So, maybe you could explain your process a little bit, for people that don’t know.

C: Well, I work on a regular, strict basis. And I don’t take the time very much to listen to these musics, but I usually take my time to listen to somebody else’s music while I’m working on my own art drawings. That’s the only way I’ll be able to concentrate, and succeed later.

S: Right, you are “strict” about how you spend your day at LAND. You come in, pour yourself a black coffee and set up your desk. You make work in the morning, rest with your head down listening to music, eat lunch, and then work again until you leave. I love how closely you pay attention to time. On the back of each of your drawings you have recorded the exact minute you started and finished your drawing!

C: That’s right.

S:  Will you tell us about how your paintings begin? You usually start with a storyboard on a large piece of paper, right?

C: Yes.

S: And then you pull out specific windows of your storyboard, and you make larger paintings of them?

C: Absolutely, because they’re based on my stories.

S: And what are some of your favorite things to draw in those storyboards?

C: Well to be honest, I draw skateboards, sometimes cell phones to be exact. CD players, UFOs, remote controls…

S: That’s right, and often times these objects are talking to you, congratulating you on your accomplishments, really. They tell you they love you. Do you consider these inanimate objects your friends or fans?

C: I believe they are my fans.

S: Can you tell us about some of your characters that you’ve created? Who are some of the people that reoccur in your stories?

 C: Well, Melissa Sue’s an example. Melissa Sue comes from the planet Selmar, and she has what nobody else has, she has a lot that none of us have, no pain, no suffering, no problems with her body or any stuff like that. She never has any of these problems, because over there on the planet Selmar, everybody was perfect. That was very unusual for a person like this, because over there her parents were the same as she is. And when she eats the food it dissolves, it disappears into the body. It never comes out of the person.

S: Oh, interesting. I love how wild your stories get.

C: But you know what, I just wanna say, she does have her pet characters. Two of them have been Selmar the dog, who talks as well and does incredible things. And Tweedles the cat, as well as incredible things like that.

S: And what about the Gonkies?

C: The Gonkies are unknown creatures that live out west on planet earth. Sometimes they wear space suits, no problem with that. The Gonkies are always being tortured by a bad villain cowboy named Buffalo Bull who wants to eat them for breakfast. 

S: Who are some of your heroes, Carlo?

C: Well, everyone I’ve ever been influenced by is still living, and some have passed away. The Fab Four, the Beatles —, all influenced me as well. And pretty much Jan Berry. But the most important guy is even Elvis Presley, of Tupelo, Mississippi, and the cartoon characters Alvin & the Chipmunks, and the Chipettes.

S: Right, Jan Berry! Tell us about that.

C: Jan Berry, who was doing surf music at the time, had an accident in 1966 when I was a kid at that time. Jan did. Because, later on when I realized it happened, it affected me. It changed my life forever, as I didn’t know. When he was an automobile accident, he became one of us disabled people.

S: That’s right, it had a big impact on you. I think maybe because you got to see one of your heroes in a similar position to you.

C: That’s correct.

S: Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, your biggest hero.

C: The man I know, who changed my life forever, and has been with me ever since, and he always will be in my spirit no matter what happens, is the chairman of the board, Mr. Frank Sinatra.

S: What do you love about Frank?

C: He’s one of the best entertainers in the world. He’s the best there is. I own more of his stuff than anybody else in the entire world.

S: And you do a lot of artwork about Frank Sinatra, right?

C: Yeah, I’ve been doing it in recent years.

S: And you like to listen to Frank when you’re drawing? On your Discman?

C: Well, yes. But not all the time. And I do get to listen to his records at Starbucks every single Saturday morning. Around ten o’clock you know, at the Starbucks place in Park Avenue South. I understand that Frank Sinatra’s had that same problem that I’ve had when I was a child, and he wanted to be a star, he wanted to be a star as what we like today. But his parents would insist on that. But he did it anyway. He struggled very hard as he could to be one, and guess what, he did a very great job being a star even after his death, he’ll always live in our hearts, no matter what we do, no matter how much time we listen to his records.

S: And every year you go visit his house, is that right?

C: In Hoboken New Jersey, which is Frank Sinatra’s birthplace.

S: Right. You go for his birthday?

C: Absolutely. And I go for his passing as well, after he dies.

S: Oh, so you go twice a year?

C: That’s right.

S: Would you consider that a pilgrimage?

C: I did consider it as a pilgrimage, absolutely.

S: You’ve met some of your favorite celebrities before. Tell us who some of those people are.

C: Nancy Sinatra. An Elvis impersonator as well, at Starbucks. And I met Frank Sinatra Jr. And I met Louise Lasser, of Mary Hartman fame, and I also met one of the heroes like Batman, I’ve met Spiderman, I met Wonder Woman, I even met the Flash. But there was one superhero that I didn’t get to meet.

S: Who was that?

A: Superman. But I’m gonna meet him one day, before I die. Hopefully I will. But all I’ll say is I don’t know when, but maybe some time in the future, hopefully I’ll tell him my fears and things like that.

S: What are your goals as an artist?

C: My goal as an artist is to be an animator, and to try to create my own characters so I can get them to be animated, and hopefully they will be distributed by those main studios, even the distributors like Nick or Cartoon Network or Time Warner or Disney, well you name it, even Teletoons as well.

S: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

C: In ten years I’m seeing myself the way I am, and there might be more to come. And one of the worst things that’s going to happen next year is the L train shutdown. It’s just like I’m facing a wildfire. The L train shutdown is actually my worst wildfire. My nightmare.

S: I hope you don’t have to face that wildfire, Carlo.

C: Well, no problem with that. But I want to thank you very much for letting me come and talk to my American public. I think I have served America in the right direction. And to everybody, I just wanna say, stay well, and the best of luck to you. And that is the way it is. God bless you all.