A Tale of Two Artists
Frank and Irene Marcello -- Two Artists in Love
Artists Frank and Irene Marcello -- Two great talents sustained by a great romance that lasted over seventy years.
The artists were first-generation born in the USA to poor immigrant families. They were two scholarship winners to the famous Barnes School in Philadelphia Pa.
Frank was born in Pittsburgh and Irene was born in Philadelphia. Frank’s people were Italian; hers were Hungarian. They met at art school, and so began a 70-year romance in which they labored to build their form of the American dream.
Frank sang like Perry Como and played the base fiddle, and for a while, vacillated between a performance career and painting.
He did played jazz outings to meet obligations when the art business was slow, but ultimately, his true loves were Irene and art. Still, he was forever ambivalent about not choosing a singing career, as bonified talent scouts had offered him contracts.
Frank also taught classes at the Ivy School of Art and Carnegie Mellon University, both in Pittsburgh.
Irene had similar opportunities in radio and publishing, but like Frank she remained true to herself and her commitment to him.
Irene was, however, the voice of the Blue Fairy in a Philadelphia radio production of Pinocchio -- the fairy who gave the title character his life as a real boy. Irene brought her soft voice to the role and she continued to make the world beautiful. Her gardens were amazing and the color that surrounded her was her life.
Over 70 years they labored hard. They endured and overcame the adversity, and navigated the life of Post-War booming America. They saw the social unrest and turmoil of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s and ultimately, beyond the Millennium.
During that time, they evolved from a life as starving artists to a better life as affluent, suburban sophisticates, raising three children along the way.
They went through thirteen American Presidents, wars, recessions, inflation, social revolution, demographic changes, and through it all they never abandoned the family or their art.
Frank and Irene embodied the old Puritan ethic that called for conservatism, common sense, and lot of sweat equity. They ended leaving over 300 hundred oil paintings, divided equally between them, along with numerous sculptures, painted boxes and screens, and various other artistic works.
Now, they are gone. In the fall of 2020, at the ages of 91 and 90, they passed on within 20 days of each other, Frank succumbing to Parkinson’s and Irene's leaving had to do in large part with her inability to bear living without her life-long love, companion, and partner in all ways.
However, the collection they left behind reflects all the myriad experiences and expression derived from these visual artists' observations. Their legacy will now be displayed gradually and deliberately in its entirety at MarcelloGalleries.com.
Frank & Irene Marcello lived on an estate in Western Pennsylvania until 2017 when they moved permanently to their 2nd home in Sarasota, Florida. They continued to paint well into their eighties. They died, 20 days apart, in the fall of 2020, in Sarasota.
