Carol Abitabilo Ast
My professional life has always focused on two main concerns: education and art. After obtaining a B.S in Art Education and an M.F.A. in Sculpture from Pratt Institute, I began teaching art at an elementary school near Ithaca, N.Y. While there, I pursued my interest in the relationship between art and learning by obtaining a PhD from Cornell University. After raising my children, I finally began to concentrate on my own art in the form of painting, using pastels, and later taught art courses to adults in Ithaca, and my own workshops in New Mexico, New York, and Maine.
My main subjects are landscapes, seascapes, and oysters. Of all the components of land and sea, I love and revere most the sky, and the sense of distance. The sky acts as a colossal backdrop, setting the stage for an entire picture. Whether just a corner of a painting or the focus of an entire painting, the sky casts light which determines the atmosphere of each painting. Regarding the sense of distance, or space: that is what “outside” is all about.
