All my life I have felt pulled in two directions, like a good cusp of detachment.
“Those born on August 21st are fighting a losing battle to protect themselves from the scrutiny of the world: very private individuals, they would like to be alone, but they rarely have this luxury. Most of them find it natural to hide their most secret feelings, thoughts and ideas from anyone except those they trust completely. Those who are not professional artists can feel very uncomfortable when they see themselves put on display, and yet, the more they try to hide, the more they seem to attract attention. Thus their life is characterized by two opposing and conflicting forces: the anxiety to hide and the pressing demand of the world to stand out […]”
In these last 6 years I have been a bit closed in on what I am doing – art can be all-encompassing – but today I want to take advantage of a clearing in my sky, perhaps also due to the exercise of joy that I am practicing, to try to reopen the windows and tell what happens in my life, obviously focusing on the creative part, which like it or not floods 90% of my days.
When in 2018 I decided to give up all my previous activities to dedicate myself to embroidery art, for me it was a real rebirth in the world. I thought I can finally show myself to the world in all my strangeness without being judged too much: people will say oh well she behaves like this because she is an artist. Artists are strange, artists do not follow pre-established patterns, they are not immersed in the social fabric like everyone else, artists are allowed to be different.
And in fact I experienced a sense of freedom that until that moment was unknown to me, before at most I was the sociopath, or to say it in GenZ language the neurodivergent.
After having embroidered and embroidered and embroidered, at the dawn of 2023 I met Barbara Pavan, who unexpectedly decided to bet on me, and I exhibited in Sansepolcro my first contemporary embroidery, l’uomo elefante. Since then I have not stopped, and a few days ago I brought 7 embroideries to Umbria for a modular installation that has been on display since last friday at the entrance of the International Biennial of Contemporary Fiber Art of Valtopina, outdoors, far outside my comfort zone (thanks Barbara).
A dear friend of mine – an artist long before me – described to me what I do, in a conversation in which we compared fiber art with its enormous and crazy structures that seem almost alive and pulsating to embroidery which is more two-dimensional, (and even less so me who am absolutely not capable of expressing my works in words), and I want to write it down here, so that it doesn’t get lost in the void: “It’s as if your work were a sort of book, anthology, story, there’s always something ancient, historical. It’s as if your works were a bit archaeological, and in any case there’s a narrative, a story”.
I find it very fitting and close to my intentions, and well, it’s also true that she’s known me since we were in school, so who better than her.
The excitement in the world of contemporary embroidery is great and on the rise; there are incredible artists around who do beautiful things, a world still semi-submerged that in my hopes as a sweet summer child will be loved by a huge number of little budding art collectors, ordinary people who for the holidays and not, will give art to their loved ones or to themselves, instead of the commercial uselessness dictated by the moment.
In my free time I embroider cushions, photographs, book pages and in short everything that can be embroidered, and I will soon include these minor works in my new shop on Etsy; at the moment it is a bit in progress but I will fix it soon, art permitting.
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