Hi. My name is Carl Monteiro. I was born in April, 1959, in of all places, Newark, New Jersey. I lived there, until I was nine
years old, then my family and I, moved to Kearny, New Jersey. I went through the typical schooling system, and after
graduating high school, I was accepted, and went to the School of Visual Arts, in Manhattan.
When I was in Kearny High School, I had a teacher, that had an art class, that would only allow third and fourth year students to
attend. I begged him to let me in during my second year, and luckily he let me. I was so “gung-ho”, that I tried to get a job in an
art store, a few miles away, but being sixteen years old, they did not hire me. Probably because I didn’t have a car yet. So, a
year later, the school helped me get a job in a supermarket, now having a car. Besides that, I took a drawing course at night,
in Jersey City State, during my senior year of high school. Not only that, but during lunch time, while everyone else was eating,
my art teacher let me use the art room, to work on my own during my lunch period. So, all in all, I guess I put in some time.
Now, moving on to college.
I started in 1977, but in 1979, I was expelled, for missing too many classes. It was my fault. I spent too much time in the city,
instead of the classroom. I remember, being so tired, even at the beginning of the day, getting off the train, and my legs
hurting really badly, carrying a really heavy portfolio.
An unusual thing happened too. I had an army surplus, faded, green jacket. One day, I decided to paint a large, white circle on
the back, and put in a Japanese letter, just because, I thought it would look good. So, I painted the white circle on it, and had
gone over a friend’s house. I told him the story, and he said, instead of putting a letter of some sorts on it, why not just leave it
like it was. I looked at it for a while, GREAT IDEA! Walking around wearing it, people must have thought I was kind of mad.
I worked for a while, but I decided to go back to school, and School of Visual Arts, gave me a second chance. So, I finished
up from 1981-1983, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. So. I went to work “ in the field “, Just about always, in production
houses, ( putting together magazines ), for a few years, but really didn’t get anywhere.
It seems that, no one! but no one, would give me a job with illustration. So, not making any money at it, I basically quit.
I fell on some hard times, but, eventually I got a job with the Post Office, from 1993 - 2004. I kind of “semi-retired”, but I am
now working mostly with photographs, on my computer, and it’s software’s.
Well. The question being, why did I choose to be an artist?
As we all know, everyone draws, from the time that they’re a child, I just continued on doing it.
When I graduated high school in 1977, I had several options as a profession.
My father, who worked for Public Service Electric and Gas, could have gotten me a job there, but, over the years, he had to
work a "swing shift". That being, one week working say from 8-4, the next week from 4-12, then the week after 12-8, and so
on. Also a lot of times, people would call in sick, and he would have to stay another shift, as replacement.
Also, I could have joined the armed forces, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, but, as soon as you do that, they can send you
anywhere in the world, and you have to go.
As for a computer profession, back then, there were only monochrome screens, and "C" prompts, for programming, ( not very
colorful ), and personal computers wouldn’t be on the market, until about 1981.
With the advent of personal computers, new programs became available. In 1993, The internet came into being, and " Flash
", only became available, in 1995, or so. I'm not sure in what year people began to put up their own websites, which is the only
way that I got to show my artwork on a larger scale, and at everyone's convenience.
p.s.- I didn't find most of these drawings, until my father passed on, but, just about all of them were already done, by the time I
graduated college. they were just stored away, and I forgot all about them.
Also, I kind of " invented ", that " squiggly line ", type of drawing. Although, i most likely got the idea from " Hot Rod Flames ", I
made it into a style of drawing.