I
paint outside the lines. I live in a forest secured atop the hills of
Salerno in Italy.
A choice I made when I felt suffocated by the mechanisms devised for
art by the market and the critics, when they started to lavishly praise
pointless works that had been created to flatter a society that was
unraveling, shamelessly, without a future or prospects.
I love my work as an artist. I love playing with shapes and colors.
I conjugate them into a kaleidoscope of variations that represent feelings,
passions, love. I use and abuse color. I like exploring the potential
of a single tone that, through imperceptible gradations, turns into
living matter. Color takes on a body and defines spaces, people, and
surfaces. Every time it’s a challenge. A creative force that is
born from the difficulty of getting myself back in the game.
What a strange
path I’ve taken. To imbue myself with art, with stimulation, I
never sought out contact with official exhibits. On the contrary, I
order myself to ignore them. And when I feel the need to recharge my
batteries, I take refuge with a girlfriend who, while she slakes my
thirst for knowledge, enchants and bewitches
me. She’s an island that (in summer) is trampled by thousands
of people, and later abandoned, often defrauded (like every corner of
the Earth, only more so), and tucked into the bed of the Mediterranean:
Sardinia.
From the
start I was inebriated by the colors of its coastline. Then I fused
my spirit with the strongest parts of it: its cliffs, its thrilling
scent, its extravagant variety of sensations. Like a seer I start to
dialogue with the wind, the sea, the cliffs.
In Sardinia
I became a student again and I captured the density of its colors, the
clear strong presence of the great rocks that soon became my girlfriends
and lovers. And she, Sardinia, the great teacher that allows me to believe
that many things are born inside of me, as in the most imaginative and
remote abstract paintings. This is where I come when I wish to delve
into a mystery and unfailingly I find the answer. Always. In Sardinia
my passion was born for bright red, violet, turquoise, yellow, and the
desire to put myself to the test with monochromatic canvases. Now I
feel the need to refresh my palette and I plunge into a euphoric exercise:
a lesson in blue.
I don’t
speak, I don’t dare to speak: I listen. The call of the night
and the mistral wind take me away, the breeze cuddles my body. No professor
interferes or tries to teach me the various components of the colors.
Nature becomes my friend and teacher. I breathe slowly, observe: the
light changes and transforms the colors, surfaces, and scents. The dawn
in Bosa, the night of Aggius, the deep blue of Capo Testa, the friendly
stones of Costa Paradiso, and the silence of the Valle della Luna capture
me and invite me to take part in a divine work. I discover the ravines,
the caves: I descend into the depths of the island until I feel its
throbbing, its noblest part.
I slowly discover its treasures. I touch its heart.