Okay, that’s me, Gerardo Castro, in the photograph, many see me as The Artist, activist, educator, co-owner of Newburgh Art Supply and a witch doctor but to define is to limit. I confess, with a deep love for the outcasts of society, a dramatic flare and high emotion, tendency toward the candid, even indiscreet, my outspokenness and a shoe for every occasion, there’s only one conclusion- I became an Artist. As a 1980’s gay man, I was insanely surrounded by misfits, and unlike uncouth straight boys, I threw the best parties. We knew about things back then. We knew about people, people like Yma Sumac and Yves Saint Laurent and La Lupe, Nina Simone, and Nancy Cunard, the rebel artist who wore hundreds of ivory bracelets right up to her armpits. Today, theres a lot of mediocrity being celebrated, and a lot of wonderful, progressive stuff being ignored or discouraged.
"When I was a shy 7 year old in Pennsylvania, while riding my bike down a steep hill, I fell off and hit my head on the pavement smack in front of a magnificent Victorian mansion. Little did I know that's all it took to get into the house I had secretly admired, as the owners came out to attend to me. That moment foretold my latent love for Victorian melodrama and exquisite clutter. Fast forward years later to Newburgh, I realized I wasn't shy at all, I was just frustrated that others weren't real and honest. I purchased the foreboding Victorian Fullerton mansion, hosted ten years of jam-packed Halloween parties headed by the creative energies of an ever-changing menagerie of hundreds of participants from all over the Hudson Valley. I got involved in politics, historic preservation, community building, opened Newburgh Art Supply and The Palatine Shop with my partner, Gerardo. Our home- and businesses- are in the former Sisters of Charity convent and every once in a while we throw impromptu dinner parties. My name is Michael Gabor and I am honored to be included here."
