I was born in Imperia, Italy in 1956.  My birth name is Giuseppe Bardani.  In November of 1960 I was adopted to wonderful parents named Frank and Callie Gargagliano.  I can't tell you when I started painting or drawing or sketching, but I do know when the bug hit me.  When I was very young I would sometimes have the privilege to go to Madison Ave. where my Uncle Tony and my Uncle Joe(my father's brothers) worked and I would watch the illustrators, artists, and the air brushers make beautiful artwork
  This was only the beginning.  Later on I received an Art scholarship to Huntingdon College in Montgomery and also The Art Institute of Atlanta as well as The Art Institute of Charlotte, which had a different name at the time.  I did nothing with this study of art.  I was told so many times, you will starve as an artist.  Well, maybe so.  Sometime around 2011 I decided at the age of 55 that I was not going to die without making art.

I moved to Southport North Carolina and for many years it was constant struggle, but, I became an artist.  Yes!!  For those artist friends of mine you all know what we had to go through and still have to go through.  But, let this be known, while my struggles in the past may have been often, the rewards that I have received from my present life is beyond any gratitude I can explain. I owe this all to a few people in my life and the highest power.   
 
Today, and since 2012 I reside in Southport.  I have a working studio, Bardani Art Studio, with a group of artists that paint locally in the studio(Bardani Gallery Artists) there and I have taught at the Community College, but now I am teaching at my own small art school.  I have a beautiful partner Cathe Thompson( CathleenARThompson)who I can say without hesitation is the world to me as well as my daughters Rachael and Callie. Life is Good!
Joseph Bardani Gargagliano