Meet Mikki Cucuzzo
Mikki Cucuzzo is a Photo Artist, who currently resides in New York. To view more of Mikki’s work please visit her web site as well as her galleries at Imagekind
Our Interview with Mikki:
Q – Do you consider Art your career and how did it all start for you?
A – Maybe someday Art will be my career but right now I am an amateur just enjoying the passion of creating something meaningful (at least to me). A few years ago, my daughter bought me a digital camera and it opened up a whole new world for me. I would go out every day and take over a hundred pictures. No more worries about film.
A couple of years later, I got Photoshop and that set the creative juices flowing. I became totally obsessed with creating art.
Q – How would you describe your work? Do you focus on a particular genre? If so why?
A – I would describe my work as Photo-Art. I take a photograph and manipulate it in Photoshop so that it looks a little less like a photograph and a little more like a painting.
I am happy when I can get it right in the middle. I do focus more on Nature Photography because it is so beautiful and peaceful, it can also be quite spiritual.
Q – Why did you join the ART for Cancer Group? What is the significance of this group to you?
A – When I found the ART for Cancer Group, It was just what I was looking for to fill a “need to do something” and make a difference. And as fate would have it, Cancer was the killer of my husband, mother, father, grandmothers, aunts and uncles. Also a few neighbors and friends. I would love nothing better than to rid the world of this horrible disease!
Q. – Why do you create art? What inspires you/where do you get your inspiration from?
A- When I see something so beautiful that it touches my soul and takes my breath away the first reaction I have is to share the feeling. What better way could I do that than turn it into art for all to see. I am definitely inspired by other people’s beautiful works. Of course, Nature is my biggest inspiration.
Q – What is your definition of ART? Does it include photography?
A – Good question…my definition of art is something that touches the “soul” in a positive way. It’s how you feel when you hear your favorite song or poem, maybe see a great painting or hear a musical piece that you just can’t get out of your head. I believe it certainly includes photography, more so today than ever before.
Q – Are you a planner or an explorer? For example do you begin your work with a vision of the end result or do you let it evolve in the process of creating?
A – I would have to say that I was both a planner and an explorer. Sometimes I feel that I have captured the essence of the picture with the camera, so I do very little to it in photoshop. Other times I play with it and see where it leads me. I mostly enjoy playing with light.
Q – Share with us, 3 of your favourite pieces
Winter scene
Pink Flowers
Mikki, will donate 100% of all net sales of above pieces to the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to help cure cancer.
To view more of Mikki’s work please visit her web site, as well as her galleries at Imagekind.
Regina Coeli deWinter is a photographer, digital artist and writer living and working in Middletown, Connecticut. Her work has been published in print and online.View Interview with RC de Winter