Tomaselli selected 2009-10 Seasons' Pass Artist
Sitting in a chair in the corner of his art studio on historic Thomas Street in Providence, Anthony Tomaselli talks of his spirituality and how it has allowed him to view life in a special way. It’s this vision that has helped guide him to become one of Rhode Island’s most distinguished artists.
Tomaselli is the Rhode Island Blood Center’s seventh Seasons’ Pass artist, joining an elite group of visual artists who have produced works specifically for the Blood Center, prints of which are distributed to all four-time a year donors and four time a year sponsors.
Beginning in early March four-time a year blood donors will receive a stunning painting of Castle Hill Lighthouse in the throes of a hurricane by Richard Grosvenor of Newport. He describes his painting this way:
“The Castle Hill Lighthouse, oblivious to those it helps, stands tall and strong as the vengeance of a hurricane thunders about. So too are blood donors. Unknowing of who it is they eventually help, they bring life to countless individuals who rely upon their strength to turn chaos into hope.”
Donors are encouraged to stop by one of the Blood Center’s fixed donor centers (see a listing on the back page of this publication) or to a blood drive to pick up their prints. The Blood Center will not be mailing prints to donors this year.
Seasons’ Pass is a powerful program that has seen the number of four-time a year donors increase by 50 percent since its inception and the number of four-time a year blood drives nearly quadruple in that time.
The result in six years is a minimum collection of 18,000 additional pints of blood. Since each blood donation has the potential to save three lives, the Seasons’ Pass program has potentially saved nearly 60,000 lives.
“When we began this program we wanted to recognize those donors and sponsors who had become our most committed,” said Scott Asadorian, the Blood Center’s Chief Operating Officer. “We chose four times a year because the four seasons are truly representative of the cycle of life.”
The program began in 2003, with the first painting unveiled in March of 2004. The first Seasons’ Pass artist was Cindy Kelly of Block Island. She was followed by Maxwell Mays, Richard Benjamin, Harley Bartlett, Domine Vescera Ragosta, Grosvenor and now Tomaselli.
Each artist has not only distinguished themselves in the Rhode Island arts community, but are well-known regionally and nationally. Grosvenor was honored in 2000 when he was asked to paint one of the panels for the White House’s calendar.
Tomaselli, who along with his wife owns T’s restaurant in Cranston and East Greenwich, was drawn to painting while in high school, pursued art in private classes and then at Rhode Island College and the Boston Architectural Center.
His entrepreneurship has flourished as owner of T’s, but T’s also has given him a sense of financial freedom that allows him to paint. T’s is a virtual Tomaselli art gallery, with his paintings displayed on virtually every corner of both restaurants.
It also has become a meeting place at times for Tomaselli and fellow artists. Besides the walls at T’s, Tomaselli’s art appears in galleries from Florida to Maine. Tomaselli’s art world is something very special, at times something very personal, but yet a world he wants to share.
“Art has been an integral part of my life,” he writes in his artist’s statement. “A reason to wake up in the morning, time with friends discussing our latest endeavors, and time alone creating … I am realizing more and more the importance of the process as opposed to the finished product … True joy and passion fill my being as I travel over canvas, paper, or any other media.”
And for Tomaselli, most of all, “painting is a spiritual journey, an act of getting into a zone with God. We make pictures. Painting has become a vehicle. My physical sensibilities have been challenged attaining a certain level of quality. On a spiritual level, it’s that place you go, timeless, speechless and you’re there.”