Season's Greetings to all! May your Christmas and New Year be magically colorful!
Sneak peek of an illustration I did for OuThere magazine about mining industry...soon will be up on my website...
One of my latest works was commisioned by Leo Burnett Sydney for their campaign celebrating the 125th anniversary of Bundaberg Rum. See more...
It was also reviewed on Australian Creative.
I am veeeery happy about this... bottoms up!
Yes, I know, not exactly a winter theme...may this one bring a little warmth to you...
detail from my latest illo...
Some days back I took part at the Cake Archi-Bottle Prize, one of the most prestigious art prize in Australia, and I was totally excited and humbled when I received the communication that I got selected as one of the top 30 of this year. Sean Edward won the competition and all artworks were really amazing. It's an honour to be among all these talented artists. The guys @ Cake held a fantastic Top 30 Finalist exhibition with fresh music and people. Thanks to Glen Cassidy and all those who made this happen, I love what you are doing!
https://www.facebook.com/CakeWines
Finally got my hands on the last Maxim issue featuring my illustration on this alcoholism article.
One hand, two hands, millions of hands... Preparation of the hand animation...
Hi there, there's been a big-black-hole/lack-of-post on the blog for some time. Fortunately a lot happened in the past months.
Among all the news...in July I joined the Illustration Room family,
and I've had the thrilling honor to be working with its director Katie
Perrott, one of the kindest and most supporting person I've ever had the
pleasure to work with...
I guess you all are back and tanned from the holidays, hope ready for the run...
There's nothing better than starting the week drawing (in one day) a crowd of children...
In the name of our reason, we flaunt our freedom calling ourselves free, free to say what we think, free to do anything we want...free to dwell in our freedom, basking in our firm belief of being so enlightened. Our reason carries us away, it leads us, it points our way...and we blindly accept what we can understand, what seems just to our schemes and set of rules (to be precise, they are not ours, someone else told us they are true). After all, how could we think otherwise if we are so certain to be free thinkers, to span with our great reason all the possibilities and make the right choice?
...it is reasonable, isn't it? It is reasonable to do with an apparent liberty the most slavish thing, the sole fact of getting used to something threatens our feeling of freedom, what if we get used to think of living in liberty and live convinced of that? Habits, customs, everyday deeds can become the links of our chain, the one which one day we may get used to, the same we ultimately may call liberty. At some point we could see ourselves carried by our mind, by what is "normality" and "common rule", but without what we call "unpredictable" and "out of control"...just carried here and there, where we are supposed to be, self-deception...without "life"and "power"... authenticity...
But that's just a bit silliness, we know we have power...we know where to go...
Are we choosing?
Finally we can enjoy the sun, and its light. Few things can do me good as much as the shine and the warmth of a sunny day. It's wonderful how its colorful radiance can affect your small and big choices, and therefore your life...besides, I've just found out he likes bathing in the sea at a certain hour...
Thanks to all those who came to the show.
Here's the painting I made for the Darth Vader Exhibition. I must say I'm not an avid fan of the Star Wars series but when i was contacted for this exhibition, being asked to depict the character of Dart Vader, the whole thing sounded exciting. I guess it was curiosity that played an important role, not only in this circumstance. I didn't know much about this character apart from his mask so I started googling about. The concept of this show was Darth Vader as a modern man, symbol of the contradiction between light and dark, rationality and madness. This is absolutely one of the leitmotifs of my output, the opposition of contradictory elements and the contrast between opposites is a fact, of my art and of life. This is was a great point on which I wanted to stress my interpretation, I wanted something Star War-ish but not only that. Something that could be ambiguous and be subject to different interpretations, anywhere, anytime. I just needed to make it universal, universally appealing, embracing something widely common. So i dug deep into the (universally known) past and went for the eternal dichotomy young/grown up. I think that the modern man ultimately is a constant battle between a child and who is going to become. Like Anakin Skywalker (the young child who will become Darth Vader) he holds a great power when he is young and pure, before he is swayed to the dark side by education, society, obligations. The modern man, wants to be strong, to control everything, and the more he grows the less likely is going to return to his original light. I wanted to portray a uncertain symmetry, balance in order to express an uncertain personality, ever torn by who once was and who he's become. May the force (the real one) be with you!
Ready to be shipped...to the Darth Vader show...
The opening will be on May 9th - 18.30...if you are around, drop in!
Fortunately, it's a pretty busy month. Another very interesting project I'm in...
From Rome to Milan...hope to see you there!
I will be part of this group exhibition based on the fictional character of Darth Vader (in Italy we call him Dart Fener). The artworks will explore his complex personality and double identity. A modern character that reflects a modern personality...if you want to learn more...well, details are in the flyer!
Close-up of a new painting...gears and mechanisms...
Close-ups of a recent painting...
Hi there, sorry for the lack of posts. Been caught up in some stuff and really didn't find a moment to breathe. Here's some snaps of some pieces, part of a project called "Typograph-X". I'll blog more about it, for now let me just say that it's about exploring the body of typography, layering in a suggestive and interesting way words, letters...letting them show through, new meanings, maybe meaningless senses...but in the depths of nonsense could lie truth or hints of that...and that could be comforting.
Has anyone ever told you "Hey dude, where are you? Do you have your head in the clouds?!
Snap of my last piece...
This summarize many feelings and thoughts boiling in my head...hand-lettering
I like the "organic" feel...absolutely imperfect...
Texture is imperfection, is humanity, is feeling...is everything!
A leitmotif of
my output is the fascination for Imperfection, that I summarize
with the phrase "I'm Imperfect, therefore I am". In my works
there's always a mixed sense of perfection and imperfection, you
can glimpse scratches, dust, lines and textures that make the
artwork human and honest, a thin interaction between sharp and
blurred lines that communicates emotional pathos and charm. The
dramatic game between faded and crisp tones it's the
contradiction of us, of our human nature, it's the sense of
mystery the surrounds the piece. It's only by embracing
imperfection, our imperfection, that we can start to understand
ourselves and our neighbour. My paintings, with their imperfect
harmony are traces of a human hand, into a human soul. In the
computer age, made of mechanical calculations, I look back to
craftsmanship to discover our essence, our idea. Hand-made
pictures, out from an imperfect and unique hand, into the
perfection of scanners and computers, smarthphones and ebooks,
can create a beautiful and modern artistic alchemy. An imperfect
person doesn't necessarily make a world imperfect, on the
contrary, parading our flaws is questioning, is challenging our
society by exploring the boundaries, is accepting the
possibility of an another path, is the
possibility of making mistakes and giving a second chance...and
maybe, maybe making this world better, not perfect...
