Carlo Daleo by Sophia Cosmadopoulos

In collaboration with Summertime, co-founder Sophia Cosmadopoulos, interviewed American self-taught artist Carlo Daleo (b.1961). Carlo has been attending LAND since it began in 2005. He is a talented draftsman, painter, writer, animator and voiceover artist, and earlier in 2021, Carlo was selected for a residency at Summertime for two months.

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Sophia Cosmadopoulos: Carlo, would you please introduce yourself. 

Carlo Daleo: Hello everybody, this is your friend Carlo Daleo, once again. I have been an artist now for 53 years. I just want to say that I attend LETC’s LAND program, an art school for people with disabilities. I was also an artist in residence at Summertime Gallery. I grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I’ve been doing such a great job of entertaining the folks for the last 53 years. 

Sophia: What was your experience of the pandemic in New York, Carlo?

Carlo: I was doing a very great job of staying away from people that had COVID-19. I was in my apartment for many months. I just had to keep away from society for quite a while. 

Sophia: Were you making artwork while you were at home?

Carlo: Yes. I did remote with LETC’s LAND program on the laptop. I did work on those pictures that had something to do with the pandemic theme, the hero vaccine that killed COVID-19. I also cleaned up my room, got it organized. 

Sophia: And how did it feel to leave your house after shutdown and come to Summertime?

Carlo: It felt like I was going back into reality again. If it wasn’t for all of you at Summertime, I would have never gotten out into society again, I would have never have gotten back to LAND. 

Sophia: Would you describe the residency program you did at Summertime in March and April of 2021? 

Carlo: Well, what happened was everything was slowly picking up... Starbucks Coffee was slowly picking up. When I started the residency, I was able to leave my house after all this time and go on my own to Summertime. First of all, I did a very great job of bringing all my CDs to the residency. I did a 9-5 thing during that time. I would get to Summertime by train. I was at Summertime for two months. I was doing a very great job working towards my professionalism.

Sophia: What did you work on while you were at Summertime?

Carlo: A mural. It was a giant mural with all the friends that I have known for such a long time. It was a lot of celebrities like Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Engelbert Humperdinck, Ray Charles, Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra and so on. 

Sophia: And you included some of your original characters in the mural, who were they?

Carlo: Melissa Sue Heart, of my own creation, as well as Charlotte Blackstock, my own creation also. And also Angie Ritter, the muscular Italian librarian from Houston, Texas described as a cross between Angelica Pickles of the Rugrats fame as well as Kelly Ripa of ABC fame, as well. And these things are very big risks, but I enjoyed working as hard as I could. 

Sophia: And how long did the mural take?

Carlo: Close to two months. 

Sophia: When you were making the mural, your music was always playing. What were you listening to?

Carlo: I was listening to Frank Sinatra music. I was listening to The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Jan and Dean and Vince Guaraldi with the album entitled Oh Good Grief on the Warner Brothers label and so forth. 

Sophia: During that time, you also worked on recording a one-hour radio show. Tell me more about that?

Carlo: It was a great program that everyone wanted to listen to after all this time. I thought about making this show for a long time, for about 25 years. I thought a lot about these songs. I did some dedications for some of my friends. I spoke about heartbreak, when I lost a true life girl named Linda. I miss her so much. 

Sophia: Who were some of the characters on your show?

Carlo: Famous characters like the NBC Peacock and the theme from The Bullwinkle Show and the Road Runner himself. On my radio show he said a lot of things, including “beep, beep” and “meep, meep.”

Sophia: Tell me about the process of recording it. 

Carlo: Well I had the show planned for a very long time, you see. I have a very great radio voice and I want to do it professionally. Jenna from Pineapple Street Media came to work with me at Summertime. Then I went to Pineapple Street Media a couple times to work on the episode. When I got there, I had to relax a little and have a nice cup of coffee. I recorded as much as possible in the recording booth until I got everything right. It was hard work, but I just did the best that I could to talk to everybody. I spoke to the people in a very calm and good manner. I’m a silly man but also a great man, so I didn’t do any voices except for the Road Runner, that’s it. 

Sophia: What was your favorite part of the radio show? 

Carlo: I liked everything. But my favorite part was when the Road Runner sobbed, “meeeeeeeeeep, meeeeeeeep.” Because that was heartbreaking that I lost a good girl like Linda. 

Sophia: Your residency culminated in your exhibition, The Carlo Daleo Show which included your mural, your radio show and works on paper. Would you tell me more about those works?

Carlo: Sure. Two of the drawings dated back from 1978. I have been saving these drawings for a very long time. I preserved them, I protected them from being harmed and getting thrown away. Those were the drawings based on the Ted and Brownie cartoon and the background for my animations. I also had some current drawings which I did at the LAND program, based on the Melissa Sue animated series which hasn’t been made as of yet. 

Sophia: What was the experience of having the exhibition at the end of your residency

Carlo: I felt great about meeting my public. I have been adored by millions of them. I have received more guests than any other artists at Summertime or the LAND program. 

Sophia: What was it like when your family came to visit your show, all the way from Arizona?

Carlo: That was a very great experience and they experienced a great radio show that was so funny. They laughed at the Finster Bugs Bunny segment. It was very funny when he said “Finster, stop that, why you holding your breath??” That’s what Debbie remembered when she was young. 

Sophia: Overall, how did being a part of the Summertime residency make you feel?

Carlo: Free, and brave and independent. Without anybody telling me what to do. I ate whatever I would like to eat for lunch. It felt great, I felt trusted again like I once did long before the pandemic. The people at the LAND program were rooting for me.

Sophia: Were there any challenges during the residency?

Carlo: There were no challenges at all. I just enjoyed doing what I liked to do best. Working independently and just doing things on my own. This is just like what I wanted to do all my life. 

Sophia: What is your dream for the future?

Carlo: My dream is to do another radio show for everybody. But, nobody knows. What I want to say also is, you’ll just have to wait and see. But, my fist radio show is still playing. I get to listen to my radio show every time I am in a bad mood. I enjoy it very, very much, I can’t stop listening to it. At the moment, right now, my radio show is still running at www.summertimegallery.org.

I want to talk more about my future. I would like to first of all get my dream of a job for three days a week and get a steady paycheck so that I can pay for my future as well as take care of my personal needs. I’d like to focus on my public appearances in the future. This is where Carlo stands. I am going to go steady and slow as much as possible. 

Sophia: Carlo, any last message to the world?

Carlo: What I would like to say to the world? World, thank you so much for treating me kind and so thoughtfully. And I hope that you won’t overwhelm me. And I do hope that you continue to listen to my radio show on Summertime’s website to get the sensation of the Road Runner’s voice and my voice. Take care of yourselves everybody and thanks for letting me be your friend. 

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Founded in May of 2019, Summertime is a nonprofit 501c3 Art Studio and Gallery located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Summertime connects neurodiverse artists with the people and world around them, providing a platform to tell their stories, show their work and make money.

All photographs courtesy Summertime. Banner image is a detail from installation photograph.