Special Costume & Puppet Designer
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Born in Newark, NJ in 1955, Michael Baroto discovered
his passion for Art early in life. It was his curiosity in puppetry
however, that would catapult him through most of his career from the New
York City stages to the soundstages in Burbank, CA and most recently with
the creation of Twenty-Nine Original Fairy Tale Character Marionettes for
the Quincy Public Library’s newly constructed Puppet Theater and Literacy
Outreach Program, Quincy, IL.
As a
young Artist, he attended a two-year curriculum at the Newark School of
Fine and Industrial Art where he studied Drawing: Technique and Procedure,
and in 1968, he was Awarded First Prize in a citywide competition in the
UNICEF Poster Award Contest, which resulted in an exhibition at the Newark
Museum that same year. He was accepted into Arts High School, in 1969,
where he majored in Fine Arts. In addition to his regular curriculum, his
studies included Art History, Sculpting, Painting, Portraiture, Design and
Figure Drawing and in 1970, he was granted permission to attend a two-year
Rutgers University Theatre Arts Program. There he studied Drama, Dance,
Promotional Art, Lighting, and Scenic Design. He graduated from Arts High
School and was Awarded The Rosamond Hooper Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Art in 1972.
Michael began his professional career as an artist
in New York City, working in various forms of the puppet medium. When he was eighteen, he
was hired as an apprentice with the Bil Baird Marionette Theatre, where he worked from
1973-1975. During this tenure, he was promoted to shop foreman. In this capacity he
created scenery, costumes and puppets for numerous productions including Pinocchio and
Alice in Wonderland. In
1976, while attending several theatrical workshops, he began his free-lance career. He has
designed and created Special Costume Effects and Puppets for various entertainment and
amusement fields including Radio City Music Hall, where from
1979-1980, he collaborated on six major productions beginning with Walt Disney's Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs. In 1981, he conceived a series of celebrity caricature
sculptures and received the first New York exposure of that work out of the Bergdorf
Goodman Salon, on Fifth Avenue, December 1982.
In 1983, Michael decided to relocate to Los Angeles
in order to pursue a career with the Motion Picture Television Arts and Science Industry.
While enrolled as a full time Business Administration student he studied courses in
Business Law and Accounting. The Sid & Marty Krofft
Company
subsequently hired him in 1984, as a puppet designer and later that year received the
first major exhibit of his work out of the Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles. Hired by
NBC Studios in 1985, He was accepted into the Motion Picture
Costumer Union in 1986-1993. While continuing to create for NBC, Michael began marketing his
skills to a wider audience in 1987. He has designed and created Special Costume Effects
and Puppets for NBC, CBS, PARAMOUNT, UNIVERSAL, DISNEYLAND and
MATTEL. In 1990, he began
to study the field of Animation and Children's Literature. He has taken courses in Writing
for Animation, Introduction to the Art, and Basic Animation Mechanics, however the
creative focus of his work began to shift toward Children's Literature and by the end of
1992, he returned to the east coast to develop his talents as a Children's
Book Illustrator.
While on the east coast he launched his
own mail order company Spectacular Dimensions, 1993 and created the first mail order
Puppet Parts online catalog for cast rubber puppet parts and services.
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