V. J . Cariani’s Peaceful Valley Rescue he was three years old and he grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His artistic talent was evident as a child, and he won a fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in Oyster Bay on Long Island. He studied art as he lived in the Tiffany mansion and cared for the gardens. His studies continued in the National Academy of Design, followed by the Art Students League, where he had notable instructors. Popular among his fellow students for his talent, swarthy handsomeness, and easy smile, he met his life partner, Marie Goth. Affectionately called “Cari” by his friends, Cariani and Goth were inseparable, sketching in Central Park or the Hudson River docks in all weather. When his adopted country entered the “The Great War,” Cari enlisted and Marie
Portrait of V.J. Cariani by Marie Goth.
C
~by Julia Pearson
emeteries are “God’s acres” within busy communities and abandoned countrysides. They provide solitude to those who visit them and read the stone markers, recording details of the souls who sleep in their borders. In the Brown County Memorial Park is a single stone to mark the sideby-side graves of artists Marie Goth and V.J. Cariani, a small American flag at the head of Cariani’s inscription. Varaldo Giuseppe Cariani was born February 4, 1891 in Renazzo, Italy, a village near Bologna, to Demizio and Carlotta Alberti Cariani. The family immigrated to the United States when
26 Our Brown County May/June 2021
The Sunny Road to Village by V.J. Cariani.
