For some art is a dream, for many it is an enigmatic curiosity relegated to museums and homes of the very wealthy. For sculptor/ painter/ photographer Roberto Santo, his art is a way of life, a vital force of nature as integral to existence as breath itself. Now best known for his monumental sculptures in bronze, iron and stone, this prolific Renaissance man began his journey at the age of 16 as an apprentice to his illustrator father Robert Peak. Since then, Roberto has personified the evolution that is his career and many say is art itself.

Born in New York City in the early 1950’s Roberto entered the world accompanied by the spirit that was the city’s bohemian artistic revolution. At a time when Abstract Expressionists and Beat poets were re-inventing the way the world looked at art and culture, one could speculate that Santo chose this very time for his personal “unveiling!” As the era gave birth to the phenomenon of the pop art movement, Roberto’s creative spirit brought him to New York’s Art Students League and The New School of Art. From there he attended the University of Oregon earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and ultimately landed in Los Angeles and the Art Center College of Design.

It was in Los Angeles that he was able to delve into one of the most powerful art forms in history, the art of filmmaking. Quick to recognize the visceral effect the medium had on people from all walks of life, Roberto evolved his eye for design and innate sense of structural balance and adapted them to a career in independent film, creating trailers and spectacular photographic campaigns. In collaboration with Hollywood legends such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Bob Zemeckis, Santo eventually had more than 200 films to his credit including Apocalypse Now, Godfather I & II, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In the nearly 40 years since beginning his creative journey, Roberto has been awarded more than 50 internationally recognized citations and has garnered commissions from mega-corporations ranging from Microsoft to Nike to Paramount Pictures to name just a few. In addition, he has been a featured speaker for the American Photography Society, acted as Creative Director for the film/ media school Full Sail and has become a staple of many private collections.

In 1996 Roberto moved his family to Pietrasanto, Italy where he has dedicated his time to sculpting on a colossal scale. While many artists of his caliber employ small armies of assistants, Roberto creates every tour de force with his own hands, breathing life into his work on a practically molecular level. With a nearly religious fervor Roberto is known to spend 18 hours a day in his studio as he explores an inner world of the mind and spirit where pure strength is melded with fragile delicacy, where inner most thoughts and desires are celebrated in stone and metal.

 © 2007 Mikal Saint George