By Nicole Falco
"My mother would throw something away and I would collect it," Izzo said. "Everything is creative to me. Everything is precious to me because I can make something with it."
Acrylics, plaster, wood, lace and feathers are just some of the items Izzo uses to translate the images she envisions into sculptural paintings, some of which are now on display in a Staten Island museum.
Now through May 30, "In His Presence," a mixed-media exhibition featuring more than a dozen of her works, is showing at the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum. Izzo considers the exhibit a representation of her relationship with God. Raised Catholic, she went through a period of soul-searching in her mid-20s and emerged a non-denominational Christian.
"It's natural," Izzo said of the relationship between God and her artwork. "I don't do it purposely. It's something I can not help. It is a gift He has given me for a purpose and a gift from which I find great joy."
Izzo said each piece often emanates from scripture, which she reads daily.
Although she is a professional artist, she does not spend all day in the studio. As an art teacher to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes at the 51st Street Academy in Elmhurst, Queens, Izzo said she is able to share the gifts she has with others.
Though her parents were teachers, teaching wasn't Izzo's first choice of a way to earn a living. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree after studying art in Manhattanville College, SUNY Purchase and the Institute d'Arte Italiano in Urbino, Italy. She worked, among other jobs, as an art restorer and printer before taking her first teaching assignment 20 years ago.
"At first I thought there was no way I was going to be a teacher; 'I'm a professional artist,'" Izzo said. "[But] as soon as I stepped into teaching I really felt that was my career, art was my career."
Izzo cultivates her students' creativity by challenging them with the chance to have their work featured in exhibitions and competitions. Her students work' also often combines different artistic disciplines. For instance, Izzo taught dance and art to junior-high-school students through a program offered by the New York City Ballet.
Recently, her students completed a seven-foot-long quilt memorializing Sept. 11, 2001. Izzo is now in the process of creating a digital movie to document the students' progress.
Besides challenging her students, Izzo also challenges herself. By next year she wants to be able to print her artwork herself, for sale. She also continues to focus on her other interests, including poetry, music, calligraphy and jewelry making. "I don't know where this is all going to lead and it's great that I don't have to know," she said.
