Alexandra Bottinelli

visual artist 

My mother’s family are multi-generational Vermonters who farmed, and worked in the clothing industry.

My father’s parents immigrated here from Italy through Ellis Island, and went directly to Hurricane Island, Maine where they lived and worked in the granite quarries.

I was born during WWII in 1942.

Except if sick, I played outdoors every day of my childhood in Waterford, Connecticut; all the kids in our rural neighborhood “lived” in the woods and on, in or around the saltwater river.

Catholic grammar school, Catholic High School, and one year of a Jesuit college was my early education, forever imprinting on me the images of saints, burning incense, and Latin chants.

I lived close to New York City, had an older brother who loved jazz and a beloved sister who lived in Italy, knew a granite worker who made modern sculptures, loved the music of Joan Baez and Dylan.

In the late 50s I became an activist: first the campaign for nuclear disarmament, then the freedom rides, and pro Castro demonstrations. The Quakers introduced me to nonviolence and communication.

In the 80s, I returned to college and felt at home in the art department.

The adventurous life of being with my very large family.

All the artists, known and unknown, who have gone before me, and my art comrades of today.

In making art I do what I did as a child – get out doors, collect things, cut up magazines, visit museums, spend a lot of time alone, and live in community.

Art principles I stand by: drawing upon iconic memories, not always needing to know what I am doing, finding enough of nothingness in the work, ceating serenity amidst chaos, reflection within pathos.

Kurt Vonnegut

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, 

sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how  good or badly,

 not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, 

to make your soul grow. Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives.