Dick Marconi Neo-expressionistic Artist It has been said that there is no challenge too great for Dick Marconi. He was a varsity quarterback in high school and college, the Illinois State Champion of the Golden Gloves award in boxing and at age 59 a driver in the Long Beach Grand Prix, all despite being blind in one eye. Marconi chooses to see his blindness as a challenge rather than a handicap, and it is this outlook and determination he applies to his art. He first began to paint in the 1960’s, where many times after a long 12-hour work day he would return home eager to indulge in his true passion of painting. Over the next three decades Marconi’s many successes in the business world did not allow adequate time and energy to devote to his art. It was not until the 1990’s that he began to create abstract forms using mixed media and found objects. These rapid and expressive non-objective paintings have obscured the typical figure-ground composition, laying the groundwork for the neo-expressionism that has become the focus for Marconi’s abstract art. In the beginning of the new millennium he devoted time to painting the seascapes and landscapes of California, Oregon and Italy, but has remained focused on the non-objective neo-expressionism that has set him apart from all other artists. He has mastered an original style by mixing and layering pure hues with his own specially formulated medium. Using his signature paint application technique he has created a style of rich tones by massaging the paint into swirls, curves and extended strings followed by bold application of layered color. In love with black, he mixes dark hues with a symphony of bright colors, creating rhythmically charged curving contours and edges across a dense mass of lines and shapes. The luscious colors often appear marbleized with analogous, complementary and discord hues in such a manner that can appear both intuitive and independent to the next. He seeks simultaneous vibration of the entire picture plane rather than a sequence of movements. Here Marconi explores the freedom he feels in becoming one with painting. This harmony, the easy give and take, expresses the artist’s intention of using the moment to interact with a passive surface waiting to be filled as the artist’s counterpart. In his own words he sees art as a “two-way road from heaven to earth and back.” With a smile, he currently admits that painting is now his greatest challenge yet. If you don’t believe him, he challenges you to close one eye and try it for yourself. His works are shown in New York, Marion Meyer Contemporary Art in Laguna Beach, and in Orange County at Galleria Marconi Fine Art, 105 City Place, Santa Ana, CA.