Toronto artist Daniel Mazzone’s pieces are bold, bright, and big, focusing on subjects ranging from celebrities including Audrey Hepburn and Michael Jackson, to everyday people. At first blush, his art is straightforward and self-evident, but as you move closer, the intricate details of his collage work provide mystery, and tell another story: “I don’t tell people how I make artwork. I give some details. I usually research a topic, and I’ll collect materials to tell the story of that person, and I just build it like a sculpture. It’s all handmade.”
Mazzone is as enigmatic and compelling as the intricacies and mysteries that lie in the details of his work. Today, he is a successful artist, but this is only half of the story. By all accounts, Daniel Mazzone is an unequivocal success. He just revealed his 62 feet long by 10 feet wide artwork at Canada’s biggest airport, Pearson International, and has even met the Pope due to his generous philanthropic contributions.
So you might never guess that in Mazzone’s youth, he was once a homeless teen on the streets of Toronto. As one may assume, the factors that lead to teen homelessness are complex. After five years of being on the streets due to a family conflict, Mazzone decided to reconnect with his mother and start paving the way to changing his life for the better: “Find something positive to focus on, and just harness it, and work towards that. You have to find things to focus on; otherwise, you’re just kind of lost.”
With a different mindset now and something to focus on, he finished his high school credits, went to university, and decided to become a mortgage broker. Whilst working in the corporate world, he dove back into one of his first loves: art.
As a child, Mazzone was introduced to art by his mother, who happened to be an art teacher. Mazzone’s style reflects his own techniques, together with what his mother taught him as a child: “I create my work by experimenting, and trying things out, and by remembering the techniques that I learned when I worked with my mother.” He attributes his skills to both nature and nurture: “I think it’s a bit of both. It’s something you have, and then obviously it’s something you need to learn, just like any skill. You have to embrace it and work on it.”
After one of Mazzone’s restaurateur friends sold a piece of art that he innocently allowed him to display in his space for $14,000, Mazzone felt he could turn his passion into something more serious. His talent and hard work landed his pieces in places like the Canadian Heritage Art Company, Hazelton Fine Art Gallery, and Art Basel Miami. His most recent work at Pearson Airport was the result of travelling to twelve countries around the world, and collecting materials from each location to create a piece representing “children being the future of the world”: “I collected materials from all over the world to create this collage, and I filmed the whole thing to show people what my artwork is really about…and a little bit about me. And that will be released this year.”
Mazzone’s documentary is in the editing process and will be premiering this year. Having been filmed over the past two years pre-coronavirus, once released it will shed light on how he made this incredible piece at Pearson Airport, and hopefully a window into how he creates his extraordinary work. One thing is for sure, Mazzone has a glass-half-full approach to life, and has taken his learnings from his youth to propel him forward, inevitably into more success: “Life’s too short to be wasting time, that’s for sure.”
Just like anyone, Mazzone has big dreams, but continues to realize them by doing the work and always keeping in mind where he came from. He continually supports charities that speak to him personally, including Children’s Aid Foundation: “I want to be able to help people that were in my position.”
Mazzone’s art, which once was just a passion, will undoubtedly lead him on the yellow brick road to his ultimate dream, “I would love to be in a museum. I would love to be in the Art Gallery of Ontario, being the national Canadian Museum, and then obviously move on to the MOMA. Hopefully, my artwork will be appreciated.”
