is a native of Columbus, Ohio and a 45-year resident of S. California. Anthony started his creative calling at age 14. Only recently has his lifetime of creative works been revealed to the art world. Even though an unknown artist, A. Picardo has now assuredly set a new creative benchmark in photographic art for the 21st-century. A lifetime/part-time artist, and full-time professional business manager, Picardo has taken the photographic art world to an alternative dynamic dimension in his creation of Frac-Art. A. Picardo has created a “New Century” art form, not unlike the early 20th century with the introduction of cubism and modernism.

Picardo’s surreal artwork can best be described as a morphic, abstract, photographic blend of Picasso, Dali, and M.C. Escher. In his Palm Desert, California studio Picardo invented a photographic method where he fractured the rainbow, capturing new cosmic colors beyond the standard rainbow scheme. In a recent interview Picardo said, “We have fractured the traditional rainbow discovering new colors no eye has ever seen. These are magnificent colors the human eye could not detect and appreciate until now. Just extraordinary! Our next step is to build the proto-type of the photographic instrument that will give everyone the ability to create Frac-Art. This new camera device is being called a Fractor. In the meantime, we will continue to experiment and produce Frac-Art images in our Palm Desert Studio.”

Bonseki

Beginning mid-7^th century Asia, under the direction of Emperor Tenmu, during the Heian Period, a new Imperial art form was created to express the Emperor’s love of nature and his dedication to the arts. This new art form was called Bonseki. Since the 1^st century, as with the ancient living art of Bonsai, the creation of art on the miniature scale has been highly honored and valued, continuing even to this day. The word Bonsai means, plant in a pot and the word Bonseki means, stone in a tray. The gardens of Kyoto, Japan were said to have been designed by Bonseki artist of the Heian period.

Artist Anthony Picardo has practiced the Asian art of bonsai since 1970. Picardo has now transitioned into the art of Bonseki, the sculpturing of sandstone into miniature objects of abstract art. A. Picardo has now completed his 2021 collection of 150 miniature Bonseki sculptures.

The artistic process begins  with the selection of sandstone from the artisan’s private quarry located in Peter’s Canyon in Orange County, California. Each stone is hand-picked and cleaned by the artist, and then stress tested to ensure the stone will maintain its shape while being sculpted.

Once cleaned the stone goes through the initial rough shaping and design. At this point the stone goes through detailed sculpting and intricate carving to reveal the inner beauty of each stone.