Stanlee Gatti

Gatti is the second youngest of five children born to immigrant parents in the small mining town of Raton, New Mexico. His father Larry, a former coal miner born in Arpino, Italy, became a master craftsman in the United States,[1] and built the family house. His mother Ann was born in Montenegro, Serbia, and was a housewife.[1]

Gatti studied music, physical education and art at the University of Northern Colorado in the 1970s, then architecture and art history at the University of Oregon.[2] After college he briefly returned home to coordinate events at the local country club, and worked as a department store window dresser. He worked at a plant store in Aspen, Colorado for several months then moved to San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.[3] He worked as a florist at the St. Francis Hotel in 1978,[3] advancing to Hospitality Manager.

In 1985 Gatti's boss at the St. Francis asked him to set up a table for group of ladies who lunch planning a 75th anniversary opening gala for the San Francisco Symphony. In a hurry, he bought a flower-patterned bedsheet from Macy's across the street, borrowed a tablecloth and napkins from housekeeping, and arranged some sweet peas on top. One of the women, Danielle Carlisle, reportedly exclaimed "Who did this?" Impressed, the women hired him to design the entire event.[4] In his first professional effort, he stirred up the traditionally staid Symphony crowd with unusually bold colors and designs. By next morning he was receiving calls from San Francisco socialites who wanted to hire him.[5] Within three months he left the hotel to start his own design firm, Stanlee R. Gatti Designs.

He soon jointed the ranks of San Francisco's social elite, not only creating events but attending, hosting, throwing parties and having parties thrown for him. According to his mother, "He never meets a stranger." In 1998 a columnist deemed him one of the three most powerful people in San Francisco.[4]

A blog ran an occasional "Stanlee Gatti count" to list mentions in San Francisco's gossip columns.[6]

In 1996 Mayor Willie Brown, appointed Gatti President of the San Francisco Arts Commission, an important agency that manages a set aside of two percent of all city spending on public works. Gatti used the position to push the boundaries of San Francisco's famously conservative taste in public art.[2] His best-received initiatives were installations by Vito Acconci, Ned Kahn, Robert Arneson, and Bill Viola. Gatti brought ten Keith Haring sculptures to San Francisco, one of which remains at the Moscone Center. However, Gatti generated as much controversy as admiration. He jokingly proposed to mount a 30-foot Louise Bourgeois spider atop San Francisco City Hall. A more serious proposal to install a giant peace symbol by Tony Labat in Golden Gate Park ran afoul of neighborhood activists and was subsequently rejected by the Commission.[7] In 1999, an already-approved commission for Buster Simpson to create a giant naked foot for the end of Market Street was criticized by the public, mocked by the head San Francisco Chronicle art critic, and ultimately de-funded by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[2] Gatti resigned from the Commission unexpectedly in 2004.

Gatti was president of the San Francisco Arts Commission.[1] He was criticized for his efforts in 1997 to site large sculptures of a peace symbol and a foot along the Embarcadero.[1]

He was best man at the wedding of former mayor Gavin Newsom to his former wife Kimberly Guilfoyle,[2] and designed his subsequent wedding to Jennifer Siebel.[1] Other friends include David Blaine, Robin Williams, Elton John, Jason Lewis, Danielle Steel, Peter Magowan, Joni Mitchell,[1] Grace Slick , and Steve Silver, Ann and Gordon Getty, and Herb Caen.

Gatti quietly funded the Rigo 23 mural "Sky/Ground" on San Francisco's St. Regis Museum Tower, contributed $50,000 towards the Haring installations, and intended to secretly pay for the Golden Gate Park peace symbol. Gatti is an insomniac and workaholic, who stays awake long into the night and drinks twelve espressos every morning.[1] He is a vegetarian.[4] He currently lives in San Francisco's Twin Peaks.

Friends and colleagues praise Gatti's "genius" for creative design.[4] He is among few American designers who approach event planning as a visual art form as much as a business service.[3] He is "one of the most venerated event designers in the country."[3] The creative process is spontaneous and focuses heavily on color. He follows color trends in fashion (his favorite is green),[4] but in event design, he explains, "I do not know what the trends are because I set the trends."[8]

• Stanlee R. Gatti Designs