 ARTIST STATEMENT
The movements, shapes, and vibrant colors of daily life inspire me to paint. I am energized by people, their shadows and their surroundings. In my oil paintings of fishermen, clammers, farmers, couples and whomever else under the sun, I want to capture gesture and context with simplicity. My work is a tribute to moments. My paintings are representative of motion, but presented as snapshots of that moment as I saw it and felt it.
I am also sparked from within by memories, images, colors, numbers, questions, fears, love and dreams. My mixed-media work is born from these internal forces. The resulting images are often layered, symbolic, personal and rendered with oils, acrylics, paper, charcoal and heart.
BIO
Traeger di Pietro was born in 1976. He grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts, a small coastal town known for its sailboats and dories. As a kid, he was involved in many sports, ultimately playing a bit of baseball in college. In down time, he often walked along the beach searching for sea-glass and heart-shaped rocks while impressing/annoying his friends with his keen eye for spotting shapes in the clouds.
He received a B.A. in studio art from the University of Maine, Orono. While in college, he was exposed to many different mediums and techniques, but none so rewarding and elusive as oil painting. He won several competitions for graphic design and drawing, but suspected that painting would come to fulfill and consume his creative instincts and artistic drive.
He was right. Traeger moved to Martha's Vineyard in 2000 to begin painting every evening while driving a delivery truck for an island distributor every day. After five years, Traeger took a break from his day job to try painting full time. While worthwhile as an opportunity to continue refining his techniques, he found the endless hours in the studio lacked the pulse and vitality of a more interactive life. Now, Traeger spends his days admiring the world that surrounds him from back in the driver's seat. He finds inspiration in nearly everyone he encounters and everything he sees and says, "sometimes the way an oil spill shines off the ground is more beautiful than a sunset," though it's clear from many of his paintings that he's been inspired by many fine sunsets as well.
The daily interactions with the many people he encounters and the many coincidences that thread Traeger's life help him form his creative ideas. He also finds ideas in his own dreamland, where thoughts, memories, and emotions rise from the subconscious when triggered.
Sometimes it's the shape of a rock or a lonely boat that sits under the big blue sky that sparks a painting. Sometimes it's a couple walking down the sidewalk. Sometimes it's the color of a child's coat in a crowd of pedestrians. Whatever the spark, Traeger paints with a relentless loyalty to his muse, a tireless passion, a commitment to artistic expression and his whole soul.
Traeger diPietro
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