* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Born to Sicilian parents in Tübingen, Germany, and raised in the culturally charged cities of Montreal and Sicily, Blandino studied art and design at local colleges in Montreal. He then embarked on a successful career as a freelance illustrator, working with architects, designers and advertising agencies before shifting his focus to the world of fine art. Blandino’s paintings are informed heavily by his Sicilian heritage as well as the baroque style. Today, his paintings are widely known for their immediacy and their sensual, even lascivious expressions of color, movement, and shape.
Carmelo explains the work by saying, “My work is a continuance of the practice of the Buddhist monks who would bring a single flower to their meditation session. They would ask the students to stare at it in silence for a long period of time. Eventually, the student comes to realize that he is gazing upon his own true form: a higher Self materializes within the form of the flower and the flower transcends beyond its visual appearance. Recognizing that all energy originates from one source, the mind is elevated to a more enlightened. The student and the flower are one.”
