User:Salmarino

Sal Marino, Founder of the Funism Art Movement, (c2002)

The Funism Art Movement founded by Sal Marino essentially began some thirty to fourty years ago when Mr. Marino began doodling on his high school notebook, blackboards, desks and any other surface that became available. The subjects of these doodles, all shark tooth, bug eyed, big nose cartoon characters were normally found engaged in some socially unacceptable or "politically un-correct' stance as to draw attention to the curiosities Marino found in everyday life. Though peppered with angst, social commentary, provocation, sexuality and certainly humor, most of the images were poignant reflections of a reality often unobserved by the casual participants of of this enigma called life.

Through the years, Marino continued to doodle his characters where and when he chose but most often as mere ephemera. Very few images of these origins exist today. Not until the horror of 9/11 did Marino (a former New Yorker/ Manhattanite) feel a need to project these images to a public he felt would somehow feel an afinity to and ultimately embrace the underlying pulse of the imagery. However, Marino, ever the prankster continued to maintain a Jokers point of view in his imagery and message.

Although Marino's current works would likely fall into the realm of Folk Art, as Marino is primarily self taught with a continued determination to avoid the influences of a structured 'art/disciplined education' to maintain a certain clarity and purity in content, the birth of "The Funism Art Movement" was indeed intended to poke fun at and break down the preconcieved notions of how we look at art, why certain art is acceptable while other works not, why some artists are icons and others iconoclasts, and many, many others simply ignored, and to employ less traditional norms to a supposedly unrestricted media. The mantra of 'breaking the rules' of traditionally accepted views and opinions of art are at the very core of the Funist Movement.

To this extent, Marino has achieved some notoriety in that a small movement has evolved around his "un-manifesto, manifesto" by attracting numerous artists around the globe who currently identify themselves as 'Funists Artists' and who produce works they exhault as 'Funism Art'. What began as a spoof of the Art World has become a part of the Art World. In fact, in the vein of Funism, some of the artists associated with the movement (artists significantly more accomplished than Marino) have taken to defending the tenets (or lack thereof) of Funism to a point of controversary and confrontation, some even claiming themselves as the founding entities of the movement. When controversary exists, the validity of the arguemment is substantiated. To this extent Funism has had, if only minor, some influence in the world of Art.