BY: DAVID COLEN
Originally Published: February 8, 2007

I'LL ALWAYS cherish the few moments Peyton Manning and I spent together during Media Day at Dolphin Stadium. Coming face-to-face with Alyssa Milano on the red carpet at the Playboy party was bliss. Shaking hands with fellow Republican and Hall-of-Fame wide receiver Lynn Swann on Radio Row was rather cool. But for me, the highlight of Super Bowl week undoubtedly was chatting up Charles Fazzino.

This year marked the seventh in a row that Fazzino obliged the NFL by designing a commemorative painting for its championship game. So the Master of 3-D Pop Art spent six days in South Florida, appearing at various venues across the region to autograph copies of a poster version of the piece.

It was a whirlwind trip for Fazzino, who first appeared at the Jim Brown Celebrity Golf Classic meet-and-greet on Monday afternoon and closed out his schedule of signings on Saturday night at Taste of the NFL, a $500-per-plate event at the Broward County Convention Center that benefited the Daily Bread Food Bank.

"It's very important for me to do these events," Fazzino tells me inside the Park Sports Club at the Seminole Hard Rock, "because a lot of people are intimidated to walk into an art gallery. They see the marble floors and the fancy place inside the beautiful mall. So it's a way to reach people through sports."

The tri-county area along Florida's southeastern coast will forever occupy a special place in Charles Fazzino's heart. As an up-and-coming artist in the 1980s, he would routinely load his stuff into a van and drive down from New York City to participate in the annual outdoor art festivals in places like Coconut Grove and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

That was then. Currently, his masterpieces are on display in galleries in nearly two dozen countries around the world, as well as in the homes of some of America's most celebrated athletes, politicians, and entertainers. Here's a short list. Michael Jordan. Rudy Giuliani. Phil Collins. Hillary Clinton. Julia Roberts. Paul McCartney.

Moreover, he has been commissioned to make one-of-a-kind editions by Roger Staubach, the William Jefferson Clinton Library, Jerry Springer, and the parents of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

"Back in the mid-1990s, Rosie O'Donnell asked me to create some artwork that she could sell and raise money for her foundation," says Fazzino. "The first year, the people being honored at her event were Hillary Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Eisner and Bill Gates. The second year, Michael Jordan bought a big piece that I did of him and his family for $250,000. And Rosie matched that amount. So the piece was a $500,000 fundraiser. From that, a lot of celebrities began collecting my work."

Fazzino's work, what with all of its vibrant yellows, reds, pinks, and greens, is unmistakable. And for nearly three decades, he has been depicting cityscapes of places like Manhattan, Las Vegas, Washington, and Jerusalem, to name just four, in both unforgettable and inimitable fashion.

I'd venture to say with great confidence that just about everyone who's ever seen his work has experienced love-at-first-sight.

That notion definitely holds true for me. It was the summer of 1996 and I was walking past a Wentworth Gallery inside the White Flint Mall in Rockville, Md., when it happened. A giant piece called "A New Year On Broadway" hung prominently in the window-front. I was two years out of school and art was the furthest thing from my mind. I had no idea who the artist was or how much it would cost. All I knew was that I had to have it.

To make a short story long: The going price at the time was $1600. With about eight bucks in my checking account, the only thing to do was apply for store-credit. I did and was promptly rejected. That left me in a state of perpetual longing. When I was established financially and bought my first home in 2003, the piece was going on the secondary market for about five-times the original amount. Thankfully, Fazzino came out that year with an edition titled "Broadway and Beyond," which was remarkably similar. I nabbed it for $2200, and to this day it remains the only thing hanging on my living room walls.

Fazzino's pieces are so incredibly intricate that it's easy to continually spot new details for weeks and months on-end.

Once he has painted the original in a new edition, he sets into motion a team of 60 artists who hand-cut and glue each piece. Upon completion, Fazzino signs and numbers them all before they head out to galleries around the globe. The entire process takes place inside a 12,000-square-foot building in New Rochelle, N.Y., which has been dubbed "The Fazzino Factory."

The building was erected at the turn of the 20th century and was formerly occupied by the famed animators William Hanna and Joe Barbera. Fazzino moved in back in 1989 and through the years began to take over more and more of the total space. Today, it's all his.

Quite a contrast from his early days. Back then, Fazzino would cut and glue everything himself, often times on hotel room floors before and after South Florida art shows.

"When I first started, I could only do so much," he says. "Galleries started seeing me on the circuit and buying the artwork. So I hired a couple of my cousins and taught them how to use an Exacto knife. I would produce the artwork and they would cut for me. Then I started working with Disney and they'd give me orders for 500-piece editions. That forced me to start hiring more people to help me cut. That's the most time-consuming element. Still today, even the little pieces are cut by hand. So each one is unique. And I think that's the reason I'm still here after all these years, the intricate nature of all the art."

Having lived in and around the Big Apple his entire life, it's no wonder it serves as the backdrop in a plurality of his creations. Fazzino attended Pelham Memorial High School in Westchester, N.Y., before enrolling in the School of Visual Arts on the Lower East Side. His very first 3-D piece depicted Washington Square Park which he debuted at an art show in Greenwich Village.

"I did 20 of the same image and put them all in different color frames," he recalls. "I hung them next to my original paintings. Every person who came by on that first Saturday literally said, 'Oh, I like your paintings.' Then they saw the 3-D pieces and said, 'Wow I love this.' The first person asked how much they were and I said, 'Um … $50 dollars.' And it sold. The next person came by and asked how much. I said, 'I dunno … $100.' And it sold. Within three or four hours, I sold all 20. No one bought any of my original paintings. So I knew I was on to something."

Nowadays, his lifestyle is a demanding one. In addition to turning out approximately 25 editions each year, Fazzino makes countless appearances at charity events and hospitals across the country. And he and his wife, Susan, are the parents of a 16-year-old daughter, Heather, herself an accomplished artist.

But that should come as no surprise. Fazzino's mother was a craftsperson; his father worked as a shoe designer for Saks Fifth Avenue.

"From Day One, I was always an artist," he says. "It's what I got accustomed to at a young age."