*About Carl Atteniese

PLACE of  BIRTH 
Carl Atteniese Jr. was born at Methodist hospital in Parkslope, Brooklyn, New York. He lived out his childhood-thanks to his wonderful mother and father- in Lynbrook, New York -a beautiful, clean and safe tree-lined town on Long Island’s south shore-about ten minutes by train from Long Beach and The Atlantic Ocean, and thirty minutes from New York City in the other direction.  He is very grateful to his parents for this wonderful place to have grown up in (though it took a trip to Korea to teach him how amazing it is).      

 ON LOCATION
          

Carl is in Korea    Carl’s Acting Headshots        

Carl stays in Suwon, a country-town that’s been citified. There he is writing about life in Korea and making art. He makes frequent trips to Japan. The art of that country influences his, enormously. He also writes poetry, and comedy, and works on his novel about love and personal growth, focusing mostly on his experiences in Asia. He has worked as a teacher, and is a volunteer relationship counselor on All Experts.com, under the heading, ‘How to Know if You’re Really in Love’. He feels his cross-cultural life-style really aids him a lot in counseling people.       

EDUCATION
Some of Carl’s Drawings (Can you see the Asian influence?):
Carl studied liberal arts, sciences, gymnastics, studio-in-art, and illustration at Nassau College in Long Island, and foundation media, illustration and photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. He took classes in anatomy drawing at The Art Students’ League, also in New York City.   

More of Carl’s Drawings  WORK EXPERIENCE   Letter of Reference

Carl took a foreign language teacher’s course at Berlitz language School in New York. He was a teacher for many years, teaching people of all ages from all over the world how to speak English. While on a work visa in South Korea, he taught there, too. 

 

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And in the United States, Carl taught for;

• Berlitz Language Institute (New York City, NY)
• Inlingua (Princeton, NJ)
• Center for English Studies (New York City, NY)
• Speak Like a Native, his own ‘company’

OTHER EXPERIENCE:
Carl has also worked in sales, telecommunications-design & illustration, and restaurants & hospitality.   In drafting and design he worked for:       

• Brooks Brothers (Floor-planning Assistant-Drafting)
• Creative Designs (Furniture Design and Drafting)
• Telephone Support Systems (Kiosks and Enclosure Drafting)

In hospitality he worked for:       

• The Rainbow Room (at 30 Rock; “one of the most amazing jobs” of his life, and where he poured coffee for His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, served Robert S. McNamarra, met Martin Sheen, Oliver Stone (almost; ‘heard him speak), Meg Ryan, Michael Douglas, Martin Short, Danny Divito, Liza Minelli, and saw Nelson Mandella, Harrison Ford, Richard Dryfus, Glen Close, Bill Clinton, Harry Connick Jr., Rosemary Clooney, Geraldine Ferraro, Terry Anderson, and many more famous and influential people)
• Wendy’s Old-fashioned Hamburgers (Where he learned the customer comes first. [He no longer consumes beef])
• Haagen Dasz (Where he fell in love with tofu ice cream)
• Starbuck’s (Where he learned the employee comes first)

ACTIVISM & PERSONAL LIFE

Carl has also studied Zen, in Korea.        

For manay years, Carl was a human rights and anti-war activist. He also campaigned for Greenpeace and The Sierra Club, to contribute in a small way to preserving the environment. His feature concerns during his activities as an activist though, were the death penalty and war. He wrote hundreds of letters in the Urgent Action program of Amnesty International and volunteered part time in the New York office of their Program to Abolish The Death Penalty. He believes that the state should never have the authority to take a life, for any reason.        

His other issue of concern was the military policy of the U.S. government under the Reagan and Bush administrations. He wrote many letters and attended many plenaries and demonstrations regarding this concern. He has always felt that compassionate activism is the proof of patriotism, and not agreement with ones country be “right or wrong”.        

He was once featured on the cover of the Long Island Newsday newspaper in a photo in which he was depicted at a protest at Columbus Circle in New York City, where he was photographed holding aloft a painting and sign he had made which read ‘No Oil War’.    He studies and speaks intermediate Korean and some Japanese.   

He originally came to Asia (in 1996, for the first time) for several reasons:        

To see Vietnam, a country that sparked his compassion and concern for U.S. policy and began his study of the cold war

To Study woodblock printing, haiku, and Japanese in Japan.

To write about life in South Korea, where his uncle Charlie served defending the country from North Korea and China.

To find an honest woman. (^.^)~

So far he has accomplished number three, but in finding Amber, he thinks all artistic endeavors are now one hundred times more possible, for he has found love. So, it seems he has accomplished number four too!        

Carl loves aphorisms and thinking about life and philosophy.    

Some quotes by Carl:        

Kindness offered to others is a gift offered to God. (1978, while in junior high school)

Art is power. (1981, while in Mr. Michael Kozzlof’s art classart class)

The death penalty is a greater evil than cold-blooded murder, for it is committed by all of us in a rational state of mind , not by one of us in an irrational state of mind. (1991, while composing thoughts for Amnesty International urgent Action Letters)

For want to bend, the branch breaks. (1991, while discovering Taoist thought in reading, in New York City)

True Love is the necessarily non-logical, effervescent, and continued, devotional attraction one feels for the one person that one wishes to experience the best and worst of life with-above all others-and the feeling that one would do almost anything for the growth and happiness of that beloved person. (2005, while composing thoughts for online love counseling)

Love is the greatest force in the universe. (2006, while composing thoughts for online love counseling)

The human mind is the greatest accomplishment of the universe, and as its most powerful and creative perceiver known to us thus far, practically divine, thus proving the sanctity of human life, and the notion that we should never take it from any one soul. (2005)

The worth of a religion is proven in how it transforms mass numbers of people to a more compassionate end, and how successfully it transcends culture and dogmas of tradition, liberating individuals to be peaceful, wise, enlightened to reality, spiritually and physically free, and of course, happy, and loving. (2007)

Love is “all or nothing”, or it isn’t love. (2009)

The worth of spirituality is in how it transforms the life of an individual, peacefully, compassionately, and harmoniously with the environment and those around him. (2010)

Carl was delighted beyond words to have met Amber  in 2008. They happened pon one another in an art gallery in Insa-dong, the famous brush, and tea district of Seoul, Sough Korea. Carl had been talking on the phone, telling his good friend, Dave, of his impression of some installation art. Amber knelt nearby and was secretly listening! They later went for dinner, discovering their common interests.  Carl and Amber practice art together and plan to do art and photography projects together (as well as perhaps music; Carl likes to sing, Amber plays piano and the Japanese ceramic flute).