Haven’t Seen a Fazzino? You Should - Makes People Happy

I’ve been focusing on people who make the world a more beautiful place this week. People who through their work, their ethics, their integrity, their talent, their genius just makes it happier for the rest of us.

 

Charles Fazzino has been called one of the most famous pop artists in the world.

 

I've been a huge fan of his style of pop art since the minute I first saw it in a window decades ago in New York City. I would stand there and stare in the window amazed at every little intricate pop-up thing he thought of to make a piece come to life. Often because I was in NYC it would be NYC buildings and street scenes. But Charles does that for many cities around the world.

 

Charles likes to be called a pop culture historian. And I know he's got a bit of a sense of humor because of the way he does the layering of the pieces in his 3D art where he shows the best of pop culture and the best of people's lives in places and events around the world. And I do mean around the world. He’s become internationally renowned.

 

He gets commissioned to do pieces for the Grammys and The Olympics and The Super Bowl every year. When I saw his Super Bowl piece this year I was sparked to take a shot at seeing if he was around to join me on my show. We live in the same city but have never met.

 

I figured he’d say yes because I know he has a warm heart. He donates a lot of his pieces of art to help good causes raise money, one of which I personally helped auction off years ago at a charity function.

 

For those who still have never seen an unmistakable Fazzino work of art, I asked Charles to explain it to somebody in words?

“Yes, easy. I always tell people, if you're not looking at my artwork, or you're just seeing it online, or looking at it in a book or a magazine or whatever, it's hard to see the three dimensions. So, I describe it that it's kind of like a pop-out book, even a pop-out children's book, even though they're not, you know, children's artwork."

 

"When I was a kid, my mother was from Finland and she always collected these European pop-out books, and she had them all around the house.  My brother's sister and I were always enthralled with these cool pop-out books from Europe that were handmade, and she had hundreds of them.  So, when I went to school, I kind of, you know, I wanted to make a pop-out book and that's kind of like how it all started.”

 

Most of the time Charles is sitting at his desk and drawing artwork that touches many people young and old. The intricacy, the colors and the designs make people happy.

 

I asked him one of my signature questions.

How does your head work inside?

 

Meaning what is going on in his head all day long to be able to produce these kinds of unique pieces of work?