Yes, there is a beginning and yes that is me proudly displaying to the world a paper mache mask that I made during art classes at the prestigious Brandywine Delaware Art
Museum School. Back in those days I actually thought paint ran through my veins instead of blood. While attending George Gray Elementary School in Wilmington, Delaware - my dear art teacher Ms. Marie Goss looked at my finger paintings and sketches and sensed that I
had an artist spirit that longed to be nurtured.
She informed my parents of her observations and before I knew it - I was spending large portions of my daily activities creating art.

Ms. Goss was so hip & encouraging in many,
many ways.  Art & music have always been center
stage in my life. As a child I always referred to the
two disciplines as if they were actually one.
My brother, the great Wilby Fletcher Jr. was a
valuable creative mentor, sharing our first creative
studio together. Side by side we watched one
another discover and grow. Wilby Jr. would be
playing the drums on the right side of the basement while I occupied the left side - and was painting,
drawing and designing with amazing enthusiasm
& power. My parents were amazed and extremely

proud of what I was able to realize with my creativity. What a great passion & committment for art!

I played the clarinet, the trumpet for eight(8)
years and the flute. During high school, I was introduced to the concept of vegetarianism & granola by my brother Wilby Jr. and loved this whole new consciousness. I remember when
I got my heart broken, (A Rights of Passage)
and how I literally walked around with a hole
in my heart and couldn’t listen to ballads anymore. I discovered that I required a form
of emotional relief that I had never needed before. When I began to dig deep I found that my visual art had therapeutic properties.
I used the pain of love lost to create a brand new me - a new beginning.

My melody now became visual and my art began to explode into something amazing that our family had never seen before. I laid the trumpet down and picked up the paintbrush.
“I love spaghetti with red sauce, but I won’t eat it everyday”. I am not the kind of artist that only works in one style. I am actively & fearlessly in pursuit of all the styles and flavors of art that I can develop in my lifetime. I allow the subject matter & the higher spiritual forces to guide my pursuit & development. Artoni believes that it is very important that every artist/human being become a perpetual student of their craft for a sucessful life.

Artoni studied art and painting in his teenage years with the great artist Ed Loper, Jr. He was very fortunate to study photography, advertising theory and American history at home with his father (Wilbert G. Fletcher) who was a community leader and a photo journalist. He studied abstract painting & design at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He did his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University (FAMU) majoring in Fine Art Education & Graphic Design. While studying pencil drawing, Artoni was awarded a four year commission to create pen & ink drawings of insects for Dr. William L. Peters of the Entomology Department of FAMU. These incredible renderings were realized directly from actual specimens under the microscope and are now a part of the permanent collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien - all before the use of Computer Aided Design(CAD). Artoni also studied Childrens Book Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

As a teaching artist, Artoni has conducted design workshops in Central America for the Instituto Nacional de Cultura in Panama City, Colon City, and David, Chiriqui in the Republic of Panama.
He has exhibited with Michelle's of Delaware Fine Art Gallery, Chadds Ford Gallery, North Carolina Art Museum, Cordoza Law School, Yeshiva University, NYC and internationally. His art can be found in the private collections of Dr. Ben Carson, Onaje Allen Gumbs, TC Thompkins, Kendall Minter (Esq), Will Downing, Naomi Tutu-Seaver, Thea Nerissa Barnes, Diane Reeves, Terumasa Hino, Nancy Wilson and many others throughout the USA, Central America, the UK, Japan, and Africa.

He has worked in licensing for several years with fashion brands & character properties for Ecko Unltd., Phat Farm, Nike, Jordan, Disney (Mickey, Toy Story), Warner Bros. (Looney Toons), Dora the Explorer, Marvel and many others.

He has been blessed to provide images and designs for many top companies in publishing and music, including CBS, SONY, EPIC, CAPITOL, ELEKTRA, RCA/BMG, ISLAND, FLYTE TYME, GRP, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, and many, many others.

Now, through Artoniworld, original works of art and limited edition prints are available for private collectors, art galleries & museum exhibition opportunities worldwide.