It sits in the newly refurbished Weehawken Public Library as a constant reminder of where Giovanni Calabrese has come from, where he’s been and where he’s going. Not to mention how talented he is. It’s the still-nameless “Tree of Knowledge,” the interactive talking tree that is Calabrese’s pride and joy. He calls it “my best job ever” because of his personal ties to the library and his ties to Weehawken, his hometown. It’s the most popular fixture in the new library, the marquee performer in a $2.5 million facelift of the old library, which at one time was a beer baron’s mansion. Calabrese created the talking tree, which sits prominently in the children’s section of the library, complete with rocking chair and story hour. The tree’s eyes move by remote control and can talk. Calabrese drew up the design, then created the tree with a hard foam, then a soft foam – basically, his main tools of creation. “By having a tree that the children can relate to, it not only decorates the children’s section, but it is something that will entice the children to read,” Calabrese said. “It really meant a lot to me to create something in the library where I spent a lot of time as a child.” When Calabrese was a youngster, he never envisioned becoming the owner of his own artistic company, Custom Creations. A son of a contractor, Calabrese figured he would enter a similar field. “Maybe as an architect, maybe as a designer,” he said. But he always had an artistic flair. “As far back as I can remember, I was always drawing something,” Calabrese said. “I always had a pencil or a paint brush in my hand. Or I had clay. I was always messing around, creating something.” However, he never really pursued it as a possible career. “Anything I drew or created back then, I threw it out,” Calabrese said. “I can kick myself for that now, because I did some amazing things. But they’re all gone. I never thought I could go anywhere with it.” Upon graduating from Weehawken High School in 1985, Calabrese never thought of attending a special art school. “I didn’t even know they existed,” he said. Calabrese headed off to St. Peter’s College and majored in marketing. “Once I was in college, I learned that there were special art schools, but it was too late,” he said. “Every school I looked at wanted an art portfolio. I didn’t have one, because I threw everything out. I decided to stay at St. Peter’s and get a degree.” Throughout high school and into college, Calabrese would spend most of his free time creating artistic figures in his basement. The real inspiration came as a sophomore at SPC, when he was thinking about a costume to wear for a Halloween Masquerade Ball. “One of my teachers told me that I should go as a sofa chair,” Calabrese said. “So I did. And that started a trend for me, going to Halloween events dressed as something crazy that I made.” One year, he was a fire hydrant. Another, he was the Energizer Bunny. The costumes were made with the same kind of soft foam that one would find inside a couch. Calabrese would go to bars and clubs that offered cash prizes for the best costumes and walk away with a substantial amount of money. “One year, I made $2,400 with my costume,” Calabrese said. “I remember telling a friend then that I wished it was Halloween every day.” After he graduated from St. Peter’s, Calabrese entered what he calls “the real world.” He got a regular 9-to-5 job. “But I soon found out I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who can work for other people. There was too much red tape involved.” Calabrese’s artwork never suffered. “I would work at my job until 6 p.m., then go into the basement and work on my art until 3 a.m.,” Calabrese said. “I was doing it as a hobby, for the love of it all.” However, the days of creating as simply a hobby were about to come to an end. About eight years ago, Calabrese was commissioned to create two costumes, one as a walking slice of pizza for a Hoboken eatery and another was as a walking water bottle for a tanning salon. Both creations gave Calabrese local attention. “I started to develop a nice clientele,” Calabrese said. “The way I looked at it, if I gave it a chance to do it as a full-time job, I could make it work. That was seven years ago.” Since then, Custom Creations has blossomed into a flourishing business. Calabrese moved past strictly making costumes into creating architectural design, using wood and metals, but he’s still a big fan of foam. Calabrese is a big kid at heart and he loves making creations that are geared toward children. He was an avid contributor to the Wonder Museum in East Windsor, where he created interactive dinosaurs and a space shuttle in the children’s play area. Three years ago, at a children’s area in an Indianapolis supermarket, Calabrese created an interactive farm scene, with cows that give actual milk and chickens that lay actual eggs. “The animals all make their respective sounds as well,” he said. “It’s really neat.” He’s also been hard at work recently, creating a human-size salad dressing bottle for a Kraft Foods commercial. His human-size jar of Gulden’s Mustard was featured in the movie “Picture Perfect,” starring “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston. He also made a shower stall that was used in the Queen Latifah talk show and another costume for the Sally Jesse Raphael show. Calabrese also made the Rip Van Winkle float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, which was 19 feet long, 12 feet high, eight feet wide and carved out of foam. His works are located in New Orleans, Texas, Florida, San Francisco, Canada and Las Vegas. “I told my friends, ‘I made Vegas,'” Calabrese said. “It was really wild.” Calabrese’s latest creation was featured at a star-studded benefit in Beverly Hills, where he made the popular Teletubbies. “I’m definitely keeping busy,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun and what makes it fun is that a lot of it is geared toward kids. I can’t wait to go home and create something else. My hobby is my work. It’s fun.” Calabrese has already been commissioned for upcoming work in a television sitcom pilot, for a Hershey’s Gold commercial and a Disney children’s video. “It goes on and on,” he said. The work will stop for a while in August when Calabrese marries Dena Schwanse, the daughter of retired Weehawken police captain Herb Schwanse. “Until then, I’ll just keep going, wherever it takes me,” Calabrese said.
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
