Finding success, one brush stroke at a time
Possessing a true passion and talent for the world of visual designs, professional painter and adjunct art professor Lisa Cangemi, of Malverne, was happy to have some of her work — namely a painting called “Tiny Dancer” — featured in an exhibit presented by the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport earlier this month.
Cangemi, who has lived in Malverne for 18 years, was among 22 members of the West End Arts Visual Artists Guild Inc. of Long Beach to be featured in the mixed-media exhibit.
“The group has wonderful people,” Cangemi said, “and over the past year has offered exciting things on the menu for artists — exhibiting, seeing art speakers and artists who perform workshops.”
Aside from the West End Guild,Cangemi has been an active member of TriCounty Artists of Long Island, Long Beach Art League, SmithTown Arts Council, Brookhaven Arts and Humanities Council for more than 20 years.
“I exhibit, work closely with members and have held my own workshops and events, discussing the connections between graphic design, photography and fine art, and color theory, and how all these things play a part and effect our daily lives,” the 47-year-old Cangemi said.
So where did her love for the arts originate? “I have been ‘doing art’ since the age of 4,” she said, adding that she discovered her passion while attending her first art class at the Five Towns Music and Art Foundation in Cedarhurst. “I knew then I had love for expressing, for creating and the use of color.”
Apparently, Cangemi’s knack for creativity was a trait passed down from her father, who was an aero-engineer in the Korean War. And it doesn’t take much to get her creative juice flowing: Cangemi said she draws much inspiration for her artwork from everyday experiences and surroundings.
“Often, my artwork has a twist of humor and a moment of life captured, inspired by something I have seen for a moment and it caught my eye, made me wonder, laugh, or thought, ‘Wow, how sensational and visually pleasing,’” she said.
