Portrait by Christiaan Blok

Carver Roberto Cardinale Lifts Spirits
with Architectural Forms in Miniature

Drawn to art  as a young boy in Colorado, Roberto Cardinale whittled away his days turning scraps of wood into airplanes, cars and rocket ships. “I have a clear recollection of when I was 9, looking through Life magazine and seeing a picture of a clay sculpture,” he recalls. “I asked my mother what you call people who do things like that. She asked, ‘Why?’ and I told her I wanted to be one.”

Cardinale immersed himself in art classes as a child, but when his high school didn’t offer art, he found himself a scrappy player on the football team instead. He honed his studies in math and science and went on to study engineering.
 

Capellina della Bruna, pine, 15 1/2" high x 8 1/2" wide x 11 1/2" deep

“Engineering was so theoretical and no hands-on, so I considered architecture. I peeked in a few classrooms, but that didn’t appeal to me either.” Disillusioned with college, he entered a monastery in Colorado. His interest in art never waned, however, and after five years of living the spiritual life of a Benedictine monk, he left the abbey and earned his doctorate in art education. He taught at several universities and was president of the San Antonio Art Institute and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

“My family thought I was kind of worthless when I dropped out of school to become a monk. After five years, they got used to the fact that their son was going to be a priest, and they didn’t like it at all when I left the monastery. Kids really work hard to disappoint their parents,” quips the 69-year-old, who now resides in Santa Fe.