Meet Don Izzo

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Don Izzo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Don, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I get my inspiration from seeing the creativity all around me in everyday life. I’m typically drawn to visual examples such as a mural on the side of a building or a park bench made to look like a person holding an umbrella. There are so many interesting objects if you just look around.

I find opportunities to be creative in some of the simplest things. Such as bringing my granddaughter’s crayon drawing to life as a sculpture for her to paint, or helping to build a six foot long cardboard dinosaur with my grandson for a school project. And yes, we both got an “A”! He kept that dinosaur in his room for 10 years and then finally donated it back to the school.

I also like to go to art shows and craft festivals. Just talking to the artists and seeing their work, and passion, is another source of inspiration that keeps me creating. Having my artist friend Wendy Costa as a mentor in my own creative journey has been invaluable.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Now that I’m retired, I have more time to focus on creating unique sculptures and also developing and refining my 2D animation skills. I create my own original pieces and also work with other artists like Wendy Costa to bring their paintings to life as sculptures. In addition, through animation, I will work with these artist’s to make their paintings and characters even more alive with short animated stories.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Let me start here. I have no formal training in art. I came from a technical background as an electrical engineer and had to learn all about the art I wanted to make.

The quality or skill I’ve found most helpful is to be a life long learner. If you’re interested in something, then learn everything you can about it. Today, there is so much educational content on the Internet; articles, videos, online courses, etc. Many are available either for free or at a very low cost. Learning about something can also take the form of being observant. Look around you and see as much as you can in your area of interest. Talk to people already doing what you want to do. Many times people are very helpful to someone just starting out. I’ve found that they want to share their passion with others.

The next step is to just start! Or more appropriately, “try it”. Start doing what you want to do even if it’s in a very small way. Your first attempt probably won’t be perfect. My first sculpture certainly did not turn out how I expected. But it was fun and I learned a lot just from trying, and also from my mistakes. These are not failures, rather they are part of the learning process. So expect to fail along the way and keep going.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

As I mentioned before my partnership with Wendy Costa sculpting her characters and then seeing her amazing work painting them has been very rewarding. I enjoy working together with other artists and illustrators that create unusual and interesting characters. When creative people get together on a project the ideas and concepts just start flowing so fast it’s hard to even write them down. It’s such a fun experience!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greeleystreetstudios.com
• Instagram: greeleystreetstudios