Anthony Mastraccio

Anthony Mastraccio is an artist born in Rome NY on November 22nd, 1998. He has recently graduated from SUNY Oswego in the fall of 2020 with a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts and a concentration in photography. Prior to attending school in Oswego he had completed two years at Mohawk Valley Community College where he was president of the Fine Arts club, was involved with the college’s program planning board, and had earned his associates degree in 2018. Graduating from Rome Free Academy High school in 2016 where he had been involved in the arts as well as the Cross Country and Track and Field teams.
Mastraccio had been interested in the way of painting for most of his childhood and late teen years, but it wasn’t until recently that he had found his passion for photography and mixed media studies. He has always been interested in the many ways that emotions can be captured and expressed through Art and works to explore them all. His passion for emotion stems from
struggles with ADHD and eating disorders as a child and recent unfortunate wanderings into trauma induced psychosis. Following, he believes that putting struggles in the eye of the public can help someone understand and start necessary conversations about mental health.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in emotions and how people can express them. My work contains a lot of underlying mental health conceptual aspects and a lot of personal meaning. Since I have struggled with mental health obstacles, I feel as though my work represents different lessons that I've learned in my recovery process. My art is one of the only true ways that I can express how I'm feeling. It is the instructor for someone else to learn about and understand me on the same level. Personality is more of a symbolic piece, representative of my progression. While more recent pieces like Altruism and Leaking Love are more expressive of pain from past experiences. I would say I am fairly knowledgeable in the realm of studio-work, silkscreen-printmaking, painting, and photography. My work is mainly an outlet for my emotions, but I portray my emotions for people to make conversation, for people to think it's unique, for people to inspire themselves as I've inspired myself.