Collective Conversations: Everyday Heroes Extraordinary Stories
Collective Conversations: Everyday Heroes, Extraordinary Stories is a platform dedicated to giving a voice to the life-changing stories that remind us what is possible in the face of adversity— the tragedy to the triumphant, victim to victory, the down-and-out to back on my feet again, stories and beyond.
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Collective Conversations: Everyday Heroes Extraordinary Stories
Antonio Masi: A Life of Courage, Art, and Reinvention
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In this deeply personal and inspiring episode of Collective Conversations: Everyday Heroes, Extraordinary Stories, Joseph Nicholas Masi sits down with his uncle, godfather, and acclaimed artist Antonio Masi, for a conversation that moves through memory, migration, family, risk, art, and reinvention.
Antonio shares vivid stories from his early childhood in Sicily during World War II, including memories of bombings, food scarcity, and the realities of a family surviving off the land. He reflects on the courage it took for his parents to leave everything behind and immigrate to America with eight children, stepping into a future they could not predict, but believed had to be better than what they were leaving behind.
From there, the conversation traces Antonio’s remarkable life journey. Inspired in part by Joseph’s father, his older brother Nick, Antonio first pursued art as a young man, then became a teacher and art department chair, only to walk away from that stable life to help build a family printing business with his brothers. That leap of faith led to 37 years in business, helping support not only their own families, but dozens of others connected to the company.
Then came yet another reinvention. After decades away from painting, Antonio returned to art in his sixties and found an entirely new chapter waiting for him. What followed was not a hobby, but a resurgence. He became widely known for his powerful bridge paintings, works deeply informed by history, immigration, labor, family legacy, and the story of his grandfather, who helped build the Queensboro Bridge.
At 86, Antonio is still traveling, teaching, painting, writing, and speaking. His message is simple and unforgettable: don’t retire from life. Keep going. Keep creating. Keep saying yes to what calls you.
This episode is a moving portrait of a man who never stopped becoming.
Antonio Masi is President Emeritus of the American Watercolor Society and has had feature articles in The Artist’s Magazine, PBS – “Sunday Arts”, NBC-TV “Weekend Today in New York”. Newsday feature in Aug. 2008, “Bridgemaster”, and in June 2009 a solo exhibition for The New York Centennial Commission of the Queensboro Bridge, and in 2010 a solo show at The Forbes Gallery in New York City, and The New York City Transit Museum in 2012, also at The Salmagundi Club of New York and The New York Times video, Sept. 2014 titled, “Living City: A Tale of Two Bridges”. He does National and
International Workshops and his paintings are collected nationally and internationally. He works in watercolor.
IG/FB @antoniomasi1940
www.antoniomasi.com
