What inspired you to create art and become an artist? (events, feelings, experiences...)
I have always looked at the world differently. I have a very hectic life and I have been looking for myself for a long time. She tried herself in more than 25 professions, but always returned to the art of painting. And in 2017, I resigned myself to the fact that this is me.
What are your artistic backgrounds, techniques and themes that you have already experimented with?
I have been drawing since childhood, but only since 2017 it broke through and I began to broadcast my soul in canvases. I tried all the techniques, but settled on two that I combine in my series of paintings: canvas / acrylic (main), auxiliary (gouache / collage).
What are the 3 aspects that make you different from other artists, making your work unique?
Gouache / collage - I came up with a combination of these techniques. My paintings are very deep, often very sad and even provocative, but despite this they are very bright and rich. The opposite of my everything.
Where does your inspiration come from?
My work is my children. I convey in the pictures all the strongest feelings. Something that revolts me, with which I do not agree, or from which I get great pleasure. I believe that my paintings will remain in the future and new generations will be able to understand what I was thinking about and what worried me, because I am going to change the world for the better.
What is your artistic approach? What visions, sensations or feelings do you want to evoke in the viewer?
Understanding is all I want.
What is the process of creating your work? Spontaneously or with a long preparatory process (technical, inspiration from the classics of art, etc.)?
All my paintings come to my mind abruptly and I see them as if in reality, in my head I make improvements and immediately begin to get to work.
Do you use a particular technique? If yes, can you explain?
I paint with paints only with flat brushes and rather with rare strokes, I achieve the effect of realism, but the most important thing is that it should not be realism, but I also lay out the collage in stripes, apparently this is connected. In a collage, I very painstakingly select the right color, sometimes for the sake of one important strip I can sort through 100 magazines.
Are there any innovative aspects in your work? Can you tell us which ones?
I already wrote about it. Gouache/collage technique invented by me. In 2010, I made my collage for the first time, I didn’t see anyone laying out stripes like me, but over the years many collagists appeared and it didn’t suit me at all, so I decided to combine my favorite gouache with a collage, after finishing the picture I even shed a tear how beautiful she was. It was a picture of "Accra" - about garbage, but Africa.
Do you have the most comfortable format or medium? If yes, why?
Yes, I have to be alone and make sure to play my playlist with music that matches the picture. Music seems to keep me in this state. I forget time and everything that happens around. It's just me and her...
Where do you produce your work? At home, in a shared workshop or in your own workshop? And in this space, how do you organize your creative work?
At home. And this does not depend on my point of birth, the main thing is that I live there at the moment and consider it temporary homes. I never wanted a workshop, I want to live in a workshop)))
Does your job make you travel to meet new collectors, fairs or exhibitions? If yes, what does it bring you?
Oh yes, I really love the attention to my paintings, although it’s more likely that they love it, and I’m just their guide.
How do you envision the evolution of your work and career as an artist in the future?
At the presentation of my paintings, the problem of our time will be discussed and a fund will be opened to help solve it. And at my exhibitions there will be a collection about the great project to help homeless animals, to which I will devote my life.
What is the theme, style or technique of your latest artwork?
This is a series of paintings on the theme "Coronavirus" consisting of three paintings. In it, I tried to convey my opinion on the biggest epidemic of our time as much as possible. I am convinced that we were persecuted, deceiving the whole world. I want the future generation to know that I knew everything, how do you ask? Where do my pictures come from... I don't have an answer to this question, I just paint pictures and believe that they are needed for something.
Tell us about your most important exhibition experience?
I think this is my first exhibition in 2017, when I came up with the name of the paintings right in the museum, because I didn’t even think that it was so important to talk about the painting and give it a name. I was so excited about the opening that I decided to go to another city and not be there at all, and I celebrated with my friends and cried with happiness that this was happening to me.
If you could create a famous piece in art history, which would it be? And why ?
Perhaps I have already created it, or maybe I will create it again, but it will definitely be mine, I don’t even want to think about other people’s work. After all, the artist went to a brilliant work all his life, having gone through a lot of suffering and happiness, how can I try on other people's feelings? I would like to sort out my attic.
If you could invite one famous artist (deceased or living) to dinner, who would it be? How would you suggest he spend the evening?
Frederic Begbeder definitely. His books are the highest degree of magnificent fantasy. I'd like to spend the evening at the launch of his book, and then just have dinner and talk about the weather, just talk, you know?
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli