How The Artist Began

Philip Bellomo

Philip Bellomo started his art career at the age of eight.  He knew then, as he knows now, that he always would be an artist.  He also sensed, but did not know at the time, that there was a special place he would call home.

Dedicated teachers and life experiences have played a strong roll as he developed as an artist.  Miss Ruth Stamp, his grade school teacher was the first to recognize that one student in the class was processing information "differently".  Instead of sending Bellomo to the school psychologist, she arranged a scholarship at The Rochester Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York, the city of his birth.

The years that followed were filled with great schools and fantastic teachers:  Two years at Pratt Institute at Brooklyn, New York, followed by the best ceramic education at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University at Alfred, New York.  Outstanding teachers, including Charles Harder, Dan Rhodes, Val Cushing and Ted Randall, greatly influenced Bellomo's understanding of the world of ceramics.

Summer school at Penn State at State College, Pennsylvania, introduced him to the world of Art Education.  It was there that Bellomo learned what special people educators are.  He became an Artist/Educator.

The second element of Bellomo's youthful prescient knowledge that a special home awaited him somewhere came to be in a 1957 visit to Tucson, Arizona.  He was home at last.

There at the University of Arizona he earned both his BA and MA degrees.  The next 15 years he employed his abilities as a free-lance artist.  In 1975 he took a teaching position at Pima Community College until his retirement in 1998.

He now spends his time actively involved in his painting studio and his ceramic studio with a particular focus on producing three dimensional Moorish tiles.

Watch for new installments on the process of creating, glazing and firing the tiles.