About Joseph Bardani

This summer July 2022, I will be finishing up 6 years as head art instructor of Brunswick Community College.  I recently opened up an art studio in Southport called Joseph Bardani Art Studio, which features artists  throughout this area that paint in their space. It is a working art gallery.  I will scheduling classes at the studio for full time study as well.   

 

I was born in Imperia, Italy on the Italian Riveria in 1956.  I have no idea when the love of art entered my soul, but I know it was at a very early age.  I lived in an orphanage until I was about four years old.  My brother Franco and I were adopted by two wonderful people, Frank and Caroline, in New York City in November of 1960.  I believe it was in those very early years that I fell in love with art and art fell in love with me. 

 

My uncle Tony owned a major graphic design studio on Madison Ave. in New York City, and as a child I would visit it often.  I would play with oil pastels and pencils. I was in a wonderland of all the beautiful art and design.  My other Uncle, Joe, worked as an art director in the same design studio. He also taught me a few things about the art world, as well as photography and copy. There was always plenty of beautiful art in all of the homes of my family. Many artist were well known.

 

 I always painted and drew sketches as a young boy but when I entered Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama on an art scholarship, I still knew very little about what art really was. Even though I majored in Art, and I was exposed to it all the time.  I was often told by artists that were well in their 60's and 70's that it took a long time for their art to be "mature" and for them to be content with their work.  I never knew what that meant, but I do now.  It was during this time I realized how powerful art, as well as photography, was and I knew it was in my blood.  I studied under Dr. Belle of Huntingdon College and we had many dicussions on what "art" was and was not.  She once told me that I had to "sing the blues", and  when the time came, I would know.  It took 30 years for that to happen.  It was also at this point that I fell in love with photography.

 

I later went on to study at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, Georgia and then the Art Institute of Charlotte, North Carolina. I learned a great deal working with Bob Griffin and managing his art gallery, Picture House Gallery.  I saw how diverse art is and how it changes an entire home, as well as the entire mood of a home.  Anyone who has ever known me will tell you that every place I have lived has had the walls adorned with beautiful art.

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Through some rough patches in my life, you know the typical living in your car and tough curveballs that are thrown at you, I have finally made a full commitment to my art and have done so for many years now.  My legacy will be my art and I hope it gives pleasure to those who see it for as long as it will be seen.

 

I have two to three basic styles.  I tend to paint heavy impasto landscapes, still lifes, and I love abstracts.  I do flat, and smooth brushwork as well. 

 

I reside in Ash, a small in North Carolina I have been living in this incredible area for many years and consider it my home.  

I have two wonderful girls, Rachael and Callie.  They are my strength and my love.  

 

 

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