Do
you like this interview and want to come back? Bookmark this page!
There will be a new "In The Studio" profile tomorrow, but this URL
will remain active for 30 days so you can return at your
leisure.
(Interview continued from the Front
Page)
 
DM: What people, places, or things
inspire you most?
Amarilli: The invisible world is my
prime source of inspiration, and also fairytales and myths.
The ancient past too,
with its vestiges, and peaceful, advanced extraterrestrial worlds as
documented /imagined /remembered, are a great motivation. Last but
not least, the Sea is an utterly inspiring place for me, because it
enhances my receptivity to the ancestral messages originating from
the invisible reservoir of subtle informations I reach into.
DM: What does your studio or creative
workspace look like?
Amarilli: The first word coming to
mind is “a mess”, but that’s only what my husband would say. It’s a
boiling cauldron ready like a womb to pop out harmony from chaos and
“new life” from independent molecules (my art supplies).
Technically, it’s a room I love (in a
country house from 1600) with a wall full of books, another wall
full of art supplies, an old window looking on peaceful nature, and
a computer.
In
summer, my working space is a gazebo on a little hilltop near my
house, immersed in nature with a relaxing Tuscan panorama (and a lot
of insects, which adore orange and white, on my
canvas).
DM: How do you organize your art
supplies?
Amarilli: Organize? I guess they must
be self-organizing.
DM: What art supply can you not live
without?
Amarilli:
Some old brushes that have become quite special (and couldn’t be
replaced nor replicated so easily).
DM: What favorite book(s) can you
recommend?
Amarilli: Art books: The Lives by Giorgio Vasari, and
Benvenuto Cellini’s autobiography. Other literature: The Mabinogion by Evangeline
Walton and Watership Down by
Richard Adams.
DM: What is your favorite charity,
volunteer interest, or cause?
Amarilli: The protection of nature is
an issue one cannot ignore, but the cause I feel strongest for is
the protection of children and of childhood. It’s tough to think
that it depends solely on a child’s luck (or lack thereof) if he
ends up in the hands of loving and supportive or abusive adults. I
wish adults were able to better remember their own early childhood
and their thoughts and feelings from that time, so they could relate
and have more compassion and delicacy for
children.
DM: What music do you love to hear
while you’re creating?
Amarilli: I’ve recently discovered The
Stolen Sweets, The Boswell Sisters, and Italian swing from the ‘30s,
plus some lovely piano music (Christine Anderson, George
Winston).
Normally, I listen to Celtic (Loreena
McKennit, Enya, Chieftains, Golden Bough), and Sardinian folk music
(Cordas et Cannas, Tancaruja, Marino de Rosas), and occasionally
some classic.
My
favourite instruments are piano, violin, drums, didgeridoo, celtic harp, and
launeddas (a Sardinian instrument originated from ancient Egypt,
which resembles bagpipes but without a bag).
DM: Who is, or has been, your mentor,
favorite teacher, or favorite artist?
Amarilli: My favorite artists from the
past are Tamara de Lempicka, Egon Schiele, D.G.Rossetti, and the
Pre-Raphaelites; my favorite contemporary artist is Alex Grey.
I
was also lucky to have a very valuable teacher at the academy in
Milan.
My
life mentor is Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese writer, who has the
greatest respect for all arts and for culture. He encourages me to
believe in myself and in what I do, and he reminds me that I have a
value as a person and as an artist.
DM: Do you have an upcoming project or
event you’d like to share?
Amarilli: I am about to conclude a
series and start a new one, with a slightly evolved style.
I
am also participating in a couple of art contests in Italy, one is
“premio Celeste” (see http://www.premioceleste.it/).
DM: What suggestions you can offer for
moving through creative “blocks”?
Amarilli: To move through a block, it
helps to identify its cause. Sure, it’s there for a reason. Probably
it’s telling you that you have to do something in order to adjust
your “aim” and get back to your own unique personal track. Find the
way back to your voice, or purpose, or self-confidence. Get to know
-- or discover -- what you really love.
If
it’s only a lack of inspiration, I say that a dry river needs other
affluents -- go study other people’s artworks, read, listen to
music, whatever directs water to your dry riverbed.
Fortunately there are no pills against
blank canvas syndrome, which forces an artist to his/her work, which
is to dig!
DM: What tips do you have for building
a professional art career (i.e., creating a portfolio or working
with a gallery)?
Amarilli: I think it depends a little
on where you live.
In
Italy where I live, it’s relatively easy (this is both positive and
negative). Many people improvise themselves as artists very quickly
and easily. What they
need is to go ahead with a production of some kind, and especially
have good connections, independently from the style – or even
quality – of their work.
In some other places (like
Scandinavia, for instance) more seriousness and background are
required: becoming a professional artist is probably more difficult
than becoming a professional dentist!
Anyway, you are never wrong when you:
1-- Work and produce a lot. 2 -- Speak with people about what you
do; get the message ‘out there’. Then, opportunities arise, and it’s
up to you which direction you go.
Some artists labeled amateurs actually
do sell a lot, because they are good and people enjoy their work.
An important aspect of
having good connections is probably to select carefully who to
“target” and show your work to. I need to sell online because, where I
live, the interest is exclusively in Tuscany landscapes, which
tourists buy as souvenirs. I have many local painter friends who
base their art career on this business. For the moment, the Internet
and all my virtual connections have proven for me more valuable than
any local exhibition or gallery.
DM: What do you do for rest and
relaxation?
Amarilli: I try to live in the present
moment.
DM:
If you could go back in time and have lunch with anyone, who would
you chose?
Amarilli: Arthur Rimbaud! And, if upon
my return, my time machine allowed me to get someone forth in time
from the past, I’d invite Leonardo da Vinci for
supper.
 
Amarilli Arenosto was born in
Milan. Her dreamy and fantasy-full nature led her to express an
instinctive and deep interest in art since early childhood; she
learned to cherish it in her stimulating family environment (where
we find orchestra director Arturo Toscanini and Giuseppe Banchieri,
painter and founder of the 20th century movement, which was named
'Existential Realism'). Later Amarilli learned how to cultivate and
develop her artistic talents, which seemed to go hand in hand with
an extraordinary affinity towards the realms of folklore, mythology,
and magic, which would become the characteristic elements of her
style.
Amarilli's education began at the age of five in
Milan's French College Stendhal, where she obtained at the age of 17
a Baccaluaréat A2 (Languages and Philosophy). Later, after some
years of pause from her studies and travelling, where she matured
her decisions for the future, and after three years spent at the
Illustration and Comics course at the Superior School of Art of
Sforza Castle in Milan, she attempted the admission exam at the Art
Academy of Brera in Milan, passed it, and completed her art studies
by attending for four years its Painting Section, under the guidance
of an excellent professor, Beppe Devalle.
She stayed in
Norway from 1994 to 2000, living in the city of Bergen, where she
mostly dedicated herself to painting, and she had the opportunity to
work for a certain period for a successful sculptor/ceramist, giving
life to a sculpture project about the local mythology. She made some
trompe-l'œil works and took care of
the interior decoration of some public places.
At the
present moment, she lives in the peace of a Tuscan country house and
works at her projects in interior decoration, illustration, web
design, and painting. She became a Mum in March 2004. Visit
Amarilli’s Web site at http://www.nuitdivine.com/
|
Artella
Founder Marney Makridakis will be presenting both the keynote address and
a full-day workshop called "The Blissness Plan Art Journal" at the Art Unraveled
mixed media art conference in Phoenix, Arizona this August! 
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
