The curiosity to see what happens next. Like when cats get on the piece of furniture wanting to drop an object because they would like to know what would happen. That certainly pushes me to move forward, there is always something I’m curious to experiment with.
If I say “unfinished” what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
For me, it is a technical term. I attended the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in a period in which a guide was lacking but there was still a rigid aura as a pictorial and technical setting, with a figurative vocation and a certain freedom that did not compromise the use of classical, traditional materials, like brushes, canvases and so on. The unfinished was a style in that context. The Direction once belonged to Paolucci and then to Saroni, the students were sometimes invited to leave unfinished parts, an exercise with a precise reason: leaving something unfinished also means leaving room for the spectator to complete it. It is a style with which I was trained as an 18-year-old and it contrasts very strongly with hyperrealism, which is a technique that I have never endured, perhaps precisely because I had this imprint of not saying everything, of leaving the last word to others, to those who look at your painting, to leave space to imagine the ending or to find a part of themselves in that image.
Unfinished what colour/shape is it?
I don’t know why, but a dusty blue colour came to mind. There may be a residue somewhere in my mind of some memory. I learned to bring “Turner” brushstrokes to the sheet, in his skies there are very visible gestural signs with a circular movement, he gave the colouring of the air, of the light, then this movement of the brushstrokes a little rotatory, looking of the air volume. The shape of the unfinished is that of a cloudy sky with all its three-dimensionality.
Is there something you have left undone in your life?
My first instinct would be to say no. I don’t seem to have anything unfinished that I would like to finish, partly because I allow myself the time necessary to open and close things, at least for concerns my artistic projects. For the rest, I am of a very curious nature and I am a bit passionate about everything. Not even with relationships, I feel there is something left unfinished. I could go fishing for some past histories with some old boyfriend, but even there I would not be who I am if someone had not sometimes decided for me. Now and then I think that all these series of works that I produce maybe should be shown, but facing an exhibition is a very big commitment. I feel the lack of a curator and a merchant with the right commercial vein. Then I think it also depends a lot on me that I don’t apply myself, in being found, known, and these things don’t happen by magic.
When is work done for you?
When I paint on a surface I have a spiral trend in the composition, for example, of a face: I start with the eyes, centre the eyes with my eyes and then I proceed with a rotating trend, on feature after the other. At a certain point, there is a moment when you feel that the painting is finished, even if it is not done in the smallest details. That precise moment when you know that when the painting is finished it was difficult to find, many times I went too far, or I stopped too early for fear of ruining it. You spend your entire life looking for that magical moment and when you are lucky enough to get it right, to stop at the right time and get a good result, this gives you a rush of adrenaline and naturally amazing substances that make you feel good.
Your favourite fertilizer?
I believe it is curiosity, that explorer gene. The curiosity to see what happens next. Like when cats get on the piece of furniture wanting to drop an object because they would like to know what would happen. That certainly pushes me to move forward, there is always something I’m curious to experiment with. Nature is also a parameter that I certainly draw on constantly. I am part of the first generation born in the city from a family of farmers, so the fact of living in a box in a city is something that I feel is not part of my DNA. I would tend to run away at all times. The rules that move the natural world are clear, transparent rules that I understood a long time ago and that can help me understand the world in which I live today.
3 words that you would match with unfinished?
Curiosity, opportunity, naivety.