What do you get when you cross a horror fan with a fine artist-trained painter? You get mood, depth, and lighting with atmospheric promises of macabre and decay presented so eloquently that you might expect to raise a pinky when sipping your next goblet of blood. You get brush strokes that tease the cold kiss of death while eternally breathing life into its victims. You get studies in terror that should haunt the halls of every darkened gallery and museum too proud to accept horror on their walls. You get the amazingly humble, yet prolific painter, Angelo Mariano.
Like a painter’s studio, horror is messy. Mariano insists his art should be “ugly when you get close.” Like a master special effects artist, he can create the illusion of gore with simple ingredients. His content consists of fluid movement and quickness typically seen from your favorite slashers. He typically paints around fifteen hours every day.
Mariano is classically trained, and has enjoyed a full career as a fine artist for quite some time now. But while he speaks of his abstract expressionist influences, his appreciation for someone like Willem de Kooning or Jackson Pollock goes deeper than that of a critic or curator with a turned-up nose. Mariano learned to paint like the best of them. He sees the movement, the action, the energy. But he sees more. He sees the psychosis, the crude savagery, the murder scene.
It’s not all darkened skies and foggy overtones, though. Night and inclement weather can set a mood, but blue skies and fluffy clouds can give the viewer a false sense of security. This is the domain where much of his work thrives. A tumbling leaf rolls through the peaceful suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, alluding to the impending approach of the killer in Halloween the same way Mariano plays with the settings in his paintings. Michael Myers wears an indistinctive mask that hides the intent behind it. Angelo Mariano calmly walks you through his oils with the mask of a respected fine artist, yet his mind is home to the morbid imagination of a twelve-year-old who’s just seen The Evil Dead for the first time.
The child is fascinated and repulsed at once. He’s fixated on the ghastly imagery and it stays with him. Horror lit the candles in the shadowy passages of Mariano’s imagination. He was a horror fan at an early age. It wasn’t until two years ago that he decided to start putting horror to his wood-backed canvases. Most of his long existing fans and customers don’t even know he’s crossed the line to delve into the recesses of his true passion. Now, he paints everything from obscure Italian horror to depictions from Creepshow; from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Return of the Living Dead; and The Evil Dead to Hellraiser. He loves the classics, and his work reflects it.
Mariano’s greatest influence in horror is Italian director Lucio Fulci, and more specifically his 1981 film, The House by the Cemetery (available to stream on Hulu and Prime). The trailer promises graphic violence that very much fit into the style of late ’70s and early ’80s horror. Quick zooms and excessive gore are punctuated with speaker-tearing shrieks. Cutaways, designed to spare the gruesome imagery intentionally, happen when it’s too late. It’s as if viewers are lured in like the unwitting victims in the film. The red is plain as day, similar to Mariano’s paintings. Looking away is pointless. Mariano unapologetically forces you to see what he sees. Much of his work has a cinematic feel. He chooses compositions that lend to the uneasy feeling you have watching horror.
We watch horror to feel alive. We get a sustained adrenaline rush from two hours of sitting in the dark watching monsters and victims, killers and survivors. If you could package the feeling, you can hold that sense of dread mixed with excitement. You’ll find the same satisfaction in viewing any of Angelo Mariano’s paintings.
Some bonus Q&A with Angelo Mariano:
• Favorite Creative influences:
“I love Caravaggio for his dramatic use of light and shadow and Willem de Kooning for his energetic brush strokes.”
• Favorite horror art not made by you:
“I am captivated by Hans Ruedi Giger and his gritty art that lead to the realization of Alien.”
• Favorite work YOU’VE made:
“I like my last Leatherface swirling with his chainsaw, bathed in a golden sunset light.”
• Favorite Horror or Monster Movie:
“My favorite horror movie is the lesser known “House by the Cemetery” by the Italian director Lucio Fulci; a macabre fairy tale through the eyes of kids.”
• Favorite Monster of all time:
“My favorite monster is Cheryl, turned evil, screaming from the trapdoor of the cellar in the first Evil Dead of Sam Raimi (the very first movie I saw as a child!).”
You can find more of Angelo Mariano’s art at angelomarianoart.com.
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