Spaccarelli, originally from Hopewell Junction, says that he has been interested in art since his youth. "I come from a family of craftsmen, of stonemasons, people who like to make things well, who believe in making things well, so from an early age I was very interested in making things, too." Spaccarelli enrolled in John Jay High School and later attended the Maryland Institute and College of Art in Baltimore. "After a year there, I came back and took up some work in Beacon." Spaccarelli's been steadily creating artwork since then, though he's now taking a break to help out the family business, the Benmarl Winery in Marlboro, NY.

"I'm a painter and a sculptor," says Spaccarelli of his preferred forms of artistic expression. "I've never done photography. It's a strange thing that I have photographs in the show. I don't consider myself a photographer." Still, Spaccarelli's images seem as though they were captured by a seasoned photo-professional. They show an alien landscape filled with strange structures of wood with a mountain looming in the background. Spaccarelli's uncle walks through the strange vista. "I had taken those pictures when I was eighteen, while I was in Ireland visiting family.

He elaborates on what's depicted in the photos, saying, "Those are photographs of a place in Ireland called Maam Valley. That's my Uncle John in the photograph, and he is stacking turf…the turf [being] what he uses for his hot water and heat. It's his only source of fuel." Burning turf is a traditional source of energy in Ireland, and stacking it allows it to dry out and burn better.

"Those pictures mean a lot to me, just as far as someone who has a very different relationship with his heat," he says. "I thought the pictures captured that very basic relationship that he had with his needs. We assume so much, we take so much for granted…It says a lot about things that have been on my mind lately, for instance the whole organic food movement…all those things are based around the idea that people go up to the food market, and they don't talk to anyone, they have no relationship with the people in their community, they have no relationship with the person who's growing the food, or how the food got to where it was. All those relationships are lost."

Stephen Spacarelli's photos can be seen at 166 Canal Street through the month of August, and his other artwork can be seen on his web-site, at stephenspaccarelli.com.