Portrait artist Anne Criscitiello has been drawing & painting since she could hold a pencil. She has studied art at The Museum of Modern Art and the Brookln Museum and attended the High School of Art and Design in NYC. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the School of Visual Arts also in NYC with a full four year scholarship. She is presently merging her love for art and spirituality by persuing graduate studies at Seton Hall University's Department of Jewish Christian Studies. The follwing is an exerpt from an article that appeared in The Catholic Spirit newspaper in March 2000

"Reprinted with permission by The Catholic Spirit Newspaper, The Official Newspaer of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey."

Art and Spirituality

THIRD IN A SERIES

Local artist sees face of God in every portrait

By Carolyn Hughes

"The eye with which we see God is the eye with which Gods sees us."

Meister Eckhart

Portrait artist and weaver Anne Criscitiello loves to see the expressions on people's faces when they receive a gift of art.

And because her Christian faith drives all of her life, there is something special about Criscitiello's work. It is the spiritual component that shines through all of them. She sees God in every person she puts on paper, and she prays for every one of them.

"The focal point of my pictures are the eyes. I always do them first. As I am doing the portrait, I do it as a prayer for that person, so it really is a contemplative experience," she says.