I was born Angelo James Aversa on November 23rd, 1955 in Cambridge MA. I grew up in Waltham, MA, in a lovely wooded area near Pizzi's farm, the oldest of 4 children. I started drawing at an early age, I definitely got the art gene from my mother who was a pretty good artist when she was young. I won 1st prize in the "Be Kind to Animals" art contest in the 4th grade. Shortly after that when I was 9 years old, I took flute lessons for a couple of years; where I learned how to read music and played in the regional Waltham orchestra. I performed in several concerts in front of hundreds of people and loved being on stage.

I majored in art during high school and designed the graduation year book cover in 1973. In the fall of that year I enrolled in the New England School of Art and Design in Boston; I attended classes for about a year and a half, studying graphic design, drawing, painting and photography. During this period I painted watercolors, acrylics on wood panels and an occasional oil on canvas, sometimes on location in Rockport, MA or in my home town of Waltham, MA. I developed a unique 'line art' style of drawing and painting, mostly abstract, while simultaneously I had this obsession about painting surrealistic giant tomato fields. I sold several paintings during my art school years and also painted signs for local businesses to earn extra money.

Then, I changed horses in midstream and took up playing the drums, started a rock band with 2 of my art school buddies, and I basically took a 25 year hiatus from painting altogether. I played in several bands in the Boston area through the late 1970's, 80's and 90's, designed a few record jackets and tons of band posters and flyers. Had some success on the Boston music scene with "The Phantoms", a four piece punk/new wave group. The band performed in nightclubs, local TV shows, released several recordings for college radio stations and had a 3 month stay on the WBCN playlist with a local hit "Anyday". In between all that I managed to get myself in two scenes as an extra with actor Tom Sizemore in a network TV drama series.

Along came the information super highway, and in 1996 I jumped right into an opportunity to help develop and to do the graphics for a high traffic chat site on the internet. That led to the creation of "CustomChat", a startup software company and lots of work as a freelance web designer. Using Photoshop was a whole new experience which helped to bring me around full circle with traditional art again. In 1999 while on vacation in Rockport, I fell in love with painting oils on canvas again. Combining realism and impressionism is what I am most comfortable with these days. My favorite motifs are landscapes, beach scenes, certain particularly old dwellings, contemporary street scenes, street people, animals, cars. I like to capture my surroundings. I believe that there is beautiful art all around us in our everyday lives.