Alberto E. Martorana, Visual Artist

Artist's biography

Born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina to a family of visual artists, I became fascinated with fine arts, design and advertising very early in life. So much that the first massive advertising campaign by a local winery, continued at home with big size charcoal signs on the walls at the height of a five year old.

My father, a visual artist, an advertiser, and an art teacher at the local visual arts school, had a vast experience working with all kind of materials. Before becoming an advertiser, he was a jeweller, a tailor, and worked with other publicists. He started to draw at 13, and painted until a few months before his death at 85.

In fact, my parents met in the same school they helped to establish, and in which later, my father would become a teacher. At the time much of the city became polarized by a dispute on what monument should be placed at the downtown central square. The civil society spearheaded by local artists wanted one, and the army wanted another one. Both my parents became actively involved in this issue. To this day, a few people still remembers what a challenge it was to defeat the army’s initiative, in a country where its military presence has been so conspicuous since the 30s to the 80s.

Early in my life I was affected by polio at a time vaccine was already invented but no yet available for all children around the world. Its effects influenced my fate in ways that went beyond the visible mark. The sequel has been a source of pain, frustration, and dissatisfaction, but to my avail, a source of inspiration. Despite the challenges, I’m proud of who I became.

As a restless child, besides being a good student, I loved to organize pranks in the neighbourhood. Very often my friends and I were in trouble due to our adventurous and creative ways to disturb our neighbours’ quiet lives. Still today, my brother reminds me of my executive role in those initiatives although at the time we frequently denied our involvement.

My parents were great influences in the development of my personality. Their stiff upper lip attitude, forced me to move on with my handicap, and had a vision for my success. And myself as an Artist was not part of their vision. With these mixed blessings, I accomplished many things, and developed a sense of excellence that tints all my work.

During all those years, other artist friends of my Mom and Dad whom they knew from the art scene frequently visited us. Among them his best friend, Jorge (Cacho) Lahitte, a painter, and also Naum Knop, a sculptor very well known in Argentina and abroad who passed away over a decade ago. Looking back, Naum impacted me the most, and this was translated in me starting to carve in stone before learning to draw. Later on, I chose to draw and paint because of its less demanding working space requirements

After High School, I entered Engineering School because I had the belief that as an Engineer I was going to be able to design and do things. Implicit within me, there was a moral idealism, which called for making this a better world for everybody and myself. For me, everything had to be modified, changed, perfected, and reworked.

Why did I end up in Engineering despite of my family connections to the arts? The most reasonable explanation I found was that engineering was an attempt to understand, control, and project a rational order into the challenging reality I was living.

As an Engineer I had a chance to go to places and live around the world. When the opportunity arose, I moved to Canada.

However, not long after starting my new promising engineering career in Canada, the worst recession since the 30’s hit the country, and became unemployed. I was devastated, and I needed a shift in direction. It took me a while to realize that I had to see my life differently. For the first time I had a chance to face the ghost of art that had been in the back of my mind for so many years.

After a difficult and long process of accepting my love for the arts, a new sense of direction entered my life. Now, I no longer stand against the world; I’ve started to make sense of it through art.

In engineering I had to play by established rules, in art by none. So much that I don’t do art for the critics because I don’t know what the critics want. After living so many years by commendable moral ideals it was time for freedom.

Over the years, my eagerness to understand gave place to the will to do things my own way. In retrospect, I became an Engineer to be able to have control over the events of my life, and then I became an artist to subdue the engineer. The arts made the stifling engineering more creative, and engineering made the arts more reliable.

Art has had an influence on my engineering by providing me a sense of freedom and creativity. But within me, the Builder and the Artist reign combined. There’re no inactive moments for my imagination; all I can do is to think on how to build that that I have imagined, or how to get to the point in which I’ll be able to build anything I imagine.

After art school, I participated in art exhibitions until 1998, when I decided to devote my attention to working privately in my art projects, develop my career as an engineering consultant, and wait for the time to show my work to the public again.