The color of creativity

Suzie Harrison

In the early ‘60s, Tracey Moscaritolo was in the Marine Corps,

stationed at El Toro. Art was secondary in her life. But she soon

discovered Laguna Beach and sculpture along with it. Her first medium

was metal, but she felt there was another creative side to her.

“I came to this place where I kept visualizing color,” Moscaritolo

said. “I kept feeling inside that it was a spiritual direction, that

I wanted to use color. I wanted to paint.”

This decision brought her to take a risk, to have the courage to

change.

“I began to study with seasoned painters who helped me develop my

eye and my talent,” Moscaritolo said. “It was instant, exciting. I

had found my passion.”

Finding her passion was a rough task during a time in the ‘70s

when she was agoraphobic and couldn’t be outdoors very often.

“I spent a lot of time indoors and with friends,” Moscaritolo

said. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me, I just thought I was

weird. I didn’t have a name for it.”

To help her overcome her trepidation, she found things to do to

help overcome her panic attacks.

“I would go some place and sit for two minutes, then the next day

five minutes,” Moscaritolo said. “The rule was, I can stay if I can

go.”

She said that she believes the combination of her very supportive

friends, courage and faith got her through it.

“I was in the Sawdust at the time and I remember how difficult it

was once the show started for me to be there,” she said. “But I am

persistent and somehow got through it. Friends and a strong sense of

humor really helped.”

Moscaritolo has had friends in Laguna Beach since the ‘60s and

great friendships, which continue to this day.

“Now , when I see the crowds coming, I am absolutely delighted,”

Moscaritolo said.

“I think it helped me develop spiritually. That experience only

makes me appreciate the freedom and spontaneity I have today, when I

can stand on a cliff and paint and totally lose myself in color and

light,” Moscaritolo said.

She said it wasn’t until she began to paint that she found her

true path in life.

Moscaritolo was born in Boston’s West End, where her surroundings

were mostly asphalt, concrete and brick buildings.

“But from my window I could see a small part of the Charles River

and I made a sketch of that view,” Moscaritolo said.

“The West End was torn down, families scattered throughout the

suburbs of Boston and a government center was created,” Moscaritolo

said.

Looking around her gallery, she pointed to the bright little

houses that are often featured in her paintings, saying that that

displacement could well be one of the reasons she paints her happy

little houses.

For six years Moscaritolo has been showing her work at her studio.

“When I first put some of my paintings in my window, I was so

scared people wouldn’t like them,” Moscaritolo said.

She would watch their reactions as they walked by.

“Some of them would stop and look ... and even come in and tell me

how much they loved the colors and my artwork. I can’t tell you how

satisfying that is,” she said.

She has an unconventional approach and is not hung up on realism.

“I am very inspired by the surrounding beauty, and it comes out in

my own impressionistic interpretation,” she said. “If I like painting

the sky yellow or the mountain blue, I do.”

She said she likes to apply her own colorful and exciting

interpretation to her paintings and that her work has been described

as sophisticated simplicity.

Laguna Beach is a place she would never think of leaving and loves

all it has to offer to its artists.

“I am crazy about living here, being an artist, having the

opportunity to work as an artist and sell my work, Moscaritolo said.

“It just doesn’t get much better than this.”

Moscaritolo’s gallery is located at 422 N. Coast Highway. She can

be reached at 494-7200 or via her Web site, at www.Moscaritolo.com.

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.