Pop Artist Delights Guests at the Library

It all started with a box of Frosted Flakes that Michael Albert refused to throw in the trash.

That cereal box became a sort of canvas, a creation that this budding artist would later call "Cerealism."

Cerealism, according to Albert, is a cross between Picasso's Cubism and Andy Warhol's Pop culture. Whatever you call it, it has made Albert's works well known in pop art circles. His retrospectives were on display at the last Sunday.

"Art is important," the former Long Island resident told guests. "If I sit here drawing all day I am not wasting my time."

Albert's interest in art came during his college days at NYU. He found himself gravitating toward many of the New York City museums, particularly the Metropolitan. Inspired by art, he began his own serious artistic pursuits working with magic markers and later, wax oil sticks.

After seven years of drawing, he began an exploration of collage. His first collages were inspired, he said, by the need to use materials he had no other practical use for, including old labels and the leftover stickers he had accumulated from his other business activities. "I love to make beautiful things out of trash, Albert said.

 Soon he began to use the extra photographs he had collected after putting together his family photo album at home to create "cubist-type" collage portraits of family and friends. Then, a breakthrough. One day, due to his reluctance to throw away a Frosted Flakes cereal box, Albert created his first "Modern Pop Artwork," a collage he titled "Portrait of an American Classic."

This led to a series of "Pop Cubist" portraits of famous brands, including a collection of more than 500 original cereal box collages. Albert's original art is handmade without the use of computers. He collects the materials, a process that has evolved over the years, where he has been turning used cardboard consumer packaging into his own original fine art.

Albert has now become an author. His first book, "An Artist's America," is a 48-page picture book that is available nationally at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. The hardcover art picture book is a retrospective of his work following two decades and including 28 examples of his work.

Art is an avocation for Albert, albeit a serious one. His vocation is business. Upon graduating from NYU's School of Business & Public Administration in 1988, Albert started his first company, a specialty food distribution enterprise, with two schoolmates. He then set out on his own to found a natural food distribution company called Tri-State National Foods. A few later he created his own brand, which in 1993 led to the development of Sir Real, a natural/organic fruit juice that is sold at food stores including Whole Foods Markets, Fairway Markets, Food Emporium and D'Agostino's.

As much as his business work sustains him and his family, art is what satisfies his soul.

"You could become a billionaire and not have the fulfilling life that art can bring," he said.

Among his noted works:

The Pledge of Allegiance. This 2004 collage features 50 brand icons representing the 50 U.S. states. The collage includes all the words to the Pledge in cutout letters;

To Be or Not to Be – This was Albert's first Shakespearean inspired work;

Skull 2006 – This collage is part of Albert's 'Mortality' series and was created on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy;

The Gettysburg Address: The words of Lincoln's speech are included in this collage, which took Albert five months to complete.