PRINCETON: Awaiting a kidney, computer tech turns to art

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PRINCETON: Awaiting a kidney, computer tech turns to art

Thursday, September 3, 2009 5:26 PM EDT
By Matt Chiappardi,The Packet Group

   At 2 a.m. one Friday this past June, Princeton University computer technician Mark Pellecchia received a call that there might be a kidney ready for him.

   As it turned out, Mr. Pellecchia did not ultimately get the organ and remains on three hospitals’ transplant lists. He’s been on dialysis, waiting for a kidney for the past three years.

   ”It’s an interesting way of living,” said Mr. Pellecchia, 34, of East Windsor.

   In those three years, with no formal training, and little background or even interest in the arts, Mr. Pellecchia turned to painting and woodworking for solace, transforming a coping mechanism into a vibrant recognized body of work.

   ”You’re stuck plugged into this machine for four hours a day, three days a week. It forces you to stop and look at different areas of your life in order to cope. Art has played a major role in that,” Mr. Pellecchia said.
   And some are now stopping to look at Mr. Pellecchia’s work.

   Some of his spray paint-on-canvas pieces were recently shown at Princeton University’s Lucas Gallery, and Mr. Pellecchia says he plans on merchandising a series of characters he’s drawn through the Café Wordpress online service.

   ”It’s not just a hobby for me,” Mr. Pellecchia said.

   ”I have no formal training, but it’s something I found I had a knack for. It’s comforting to know that I can express myself in this way,” he added.

   Mr. Pellecchia said he grew up being more active outdoors than with paint and brush.

   Despite his longtime kidney condition, he’s been an avid mountain biker, rock climber, hiker and camper.

   When he first starting having health problems at age 13, his father, Nick, donated his own kidney to help.

   ”When you get a transplant, the organs don’t last forever,” Mr. Pellecchia said.

   ”You expect maybe 10 or 12 years. I got 18 before it started to fail,” he added.

   When it did, Mr. Pellecchia found himself with much more time on his hands while on dialysis and living a more sedentary life than he was accustomed to.

   ”I just started drawing abstract things. My friends all thought they looked cool so they kept pushing me to keep up with it,” he said.

   It took about six months of off again on again work, but eventually Mr. Pellecchia said he found the outlet not only gave him joy but was a way to ward off despondency.

   ”At first it was more about keeping myself sane, but it turned out to be something I loved, which was surprising,” he said.

   So, far, Mr. Pellecchia has worked with spray paint and done pencil drawings, although he’s slowed down with the spray paint.

   ”I can’t do much spray paint work living in a condo,” he said.
   He also does some 3-D work creating sculptures and small wooden figurines.

   ”I love sculpting. It’s all about getting into the physical and tactile feel of doing it,” Mr. Pellecchia said.

   When it comes to his drawings, he doesn’t work in color, at least not in the traditional way.

   Having 13 years experience as a computer technician — he’s spent the past seven years working at Princeton University — he scans all of his drawings into the computer and adds color using a freeware program similar to PhotoShop.

   Oddly enough, Mr. Pellecchia suffers from blue-green colorblindness — difficulty distinguishing between the two hues —but he said it motivates him to put even more color into his work.

   ”It’s funny that it’s a reason there’s a lot of color in my work. I like things that are bright and pleasant, not hard on the eyes,” he said.

   Mr. Pellecchia has no plans to quit his day job just yet but also no plans to slow down as an artist.

   He hasn’t learned how to use watercolors yet, but said he recently bought a set and hopes to give it a try soon.

   Earlier in life, he’d considered becoming a metal worker and is now considering doing some metal sculptures as well.

   He also said he wants to develop a device children can use to create spray paint work of their own. It would be hooked into a computer, he said, and would create small spray paint pieces based on whatever input one enters.

   In the meantime, Mr. Pellecchia has completed about 40 large two-dimensional pieces along with dozens of smaller figurines he describes as influenced by African, Polynesian and Mesoamerican forms.

   When he sells a piece, he also gives the buyer the original hand drawing in an effort “to just get everything out there,” he said.

   ”Art should be something that’s there for everyone to enjoy. Even if people don’t like it, I don’t care. Even if they criticize me or my work, it doesn’t matter,” Mr. Pellecchia added.

   ”At least they were thinking about art.”

http://centraljersey.com/articles/2009/09/03/the_princeton_packet/news/doc4aa033fff014e440302791.txt