ARTIST

Stephen is dedicated to creating art that beautifies the environment, celebrates life and the human spirit – by instilling feelings of meaning, identity and connection to each other.

Stephen's relationship to sculpture is rooted in a love of nature, constructing things, and a fascination with the tension between nature, humanity and technology.

From Stephen:

At six months my love affair with nature began. At dawn my mother would take me to the beach near home in Sea Bright, New Jersey. There I laid on a blanket watching the sun rise as she swam. At two I wandered off alone to explore the woods – setting off a day long search. By five I was drawing and painting the landscapes and animals near our home. And, at ten I carved my first bird and was building boats in I my father’s basement workshop.

After serving in the Air Force, I took a job as a young timekeeper with the United States Steel Corporation. There, managing bridge and building construction projects, my love of building large scale projects was born. I learned how to manage projects, collaborate with multiple trades, build coalitions, budgets and timelines. I also learned that my future was in my own studio following my passion and building my dreams.

In the summer of 1967, while volunteering in the Israeli Army, my passion for creating public art was born. Call it a quirk of fate or destiny. I was invited by a Non-Governmental-Organization to create a memorial for victims of the 6 Day War. For that first commission I met with the survivors, listened to their stories, and traversed the battle fields where their young soldiers fell.

I learned how the creation of art was a healing process: for individuals, families, communities – and myself. Creating the memorial built bonds. As stories of lost loved ones were told; their lives and the spirit of life were recognized and celebrated. I learned how art transforms people and places, by bringing us together and infusing space with meaning, beauty, and purpose.

Public Art making is for me a joyous journey of collaboration and celebration, learning and discovery. My goal is to create art that builds bonds between each other and the places we live, work and play. It is an honoring of who we are, have been and who we are yet to become!

ARTIST

Judith holds a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from The Ohio State University. She has been designing public and private residential spaces since 2001 and has painted since childhood.

From Judith:

Art is a verb. It’s a way of being and of relating to the world. In my experience of life, I’ve always been easily distracted by the dance of trees in the wind, by the glint of a bottle fly’s wing, by the perfection of balance in the design of a building or a face, by the harmony of color in a roadside garden of wildflowers and the magic of raindrop patterns sliding down a window.

I made art as a child and never stopped. I wove baskets and made clothes for my dolls. I sketched house plans and I drew many horses. I got A’s in art classes, and I never thought of myself as an artist. What I’ve done in life is to follow my passions wherever they lead: first, to a career of service in the mental health field and then to pursue a license as a massage therapist, all the while continuing to paint, draw an use art and poetry as therapeutic tools as a mental health professional, as well as for my own enjoyment. I gave my paintings to friends and family. My growing passion for designing gardens led me to pursue a Master’s degree in landscape architecture from The Ohio State University when I was almost fifty. The formal training in design honed my skills and I began designing gardens professionally.

As Stephen Canneto and I began our life partnership together, we found that our two artistic sensibilities worked well together to create a collaboration of complimentary abilities and perspectives. We share the same vision of public art as a necessary component of a healthy and vibrant community.

I continue to paint, to design gardens and to discover new and exciting applications for my passion for artistic expression. Most recently, I happily found myself designing twelve stained glass window panels for a chapel, and the landscape design for our memorial to the victims of the Parkland High School shooting. And, I continue to be delighted by the glint of an insect wing in the sunshine….

PREVIOUS WORK

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Two artists unveiled a statue at Broward Health Coral Springs on Tuesday in honor of the 17 victims of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

The statue titled, the "Spirit of Caring," sits in front of the hospital's emergency room, about a 10-minute drive from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

"The imagery of 'Spirit of Caring' is that of an adult, a parent, and two youths, one older one younger. They dance around a heart. A heart that symbolizes the values that we hold most dearly," said Judith Spater, one of the two artists.

Spater and Stephen Canneto created the statue together and worked on it for about four years.

"The opportunity to meet with the people of this community, the families of this community, has been deeply moving for us," Canneto said at the statue's unveiling ceremony on Tuesday morning.

Among the crowd of police officers, firefighters, and hospital staff at the ceremony were parents Annika and Mitch Dworet, whose son was killed in the shooting in 2018.

“We are passionate about the built and natural environments and believe public art builds bonds between each other and the places we live. Public art as place-making is a joyous journey of collaboration and celebration, learning and discovery.

Our public art is inspired by the site, its functions and mission. It tells the visual story of who we are of who we are, who we have been and who we are yet to become.”