All posts in Abstract Art

06Jan

Flow like the river’s water that goes to the sea

Water splashes, 2018

Sometimes life can be overwhelming and chaotic. It’s natural to want to find order and coherence in our lives, but this should not come at the expense of our well-being.

Rather than maintaining rigid control over every aspect of life, it can be beneficial to take a different approach and learn to flow like the river’s water that goes to the sea. In this blog post, I’ll explore how adopting this mindset can help us find balance and peace.

THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING INCOHERENT

Life is eternal change, then is wise to have a flexible mindset.
If everything is constantly changing, why don’t you also?

To be constant and not adapt to life changes is stupidity and stubbornness. It would be better for us if we were more adaptable than coherent; it would benefit us more than harm us.

HOW TO BECOME INCOHERENT

It’s more challenging to be incoherent than coherent.

To be incoherent, you must be wise, conscious, witty and curious. You can’t become incoherent if you’re not a little bit of an “artist” because artists are always practising becoming inconsistent.

One way of being inconsistent is admitting your vulnerability without feeling ashamed. Or you can be a person that many calls ‘being of many minds’: you have many passions without being committed exclusively to one of them.

Another way of inconsistency is by being different from your own self. You can also be inconsistent by being unpredictable. To make things happen, we often do the opposite of what people expect us to do, which makes them think in a new way, so they come up with their own answers and create a new approach to life for themselves.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING INCOHERENT?

You will become adaptable to the changing reality and never be unprepared to face the unexpected.

Incoherent people are not set in their ways and can explore different perspectives with an open mind rather than getting stuck in one way of thinking.

Being incoherent also means being someone who can’t be controlled easily because you are not predictable.


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15Dec

Why a raft can be a metaphor

Le radeau de la meduse, 2021

Have you ever been frustrated by something that seemed like a “sea of troubles”? Or perhaps you got caught up in something that felt like a “whirlwind” or a “vortex”?

A lot of us probably have.
These words—sea, whirlwind, vortex —are common metaphors.
A metaphor is when we use one word to stand for another thing.

So, the sea stands for troubles; the whirlwind stands for stress; the vortex stands for problems again. Why is the raft such an
interesting metaphor?

Because it means more than you think.

We all use figures of speech like these almost daily without realising it.

But if you stop to think about it, why do we call troubles seas? Why do we say stress whirls? Why do we say we are caught up in something or need to avoid a situation quicker than a rat escaping a sinking ship?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD METAPHOR?

A metaphor works because it links two seemingly unrelated concepts. The process gives a new idea and adds depth and resonance.
A successful metaphor will prompt the reader to think, “That’s an interesting and unexpected way to look at things!”

A good metaphor has three qualities: it’ s original, it’s precise, and it’s memorable.

WHY ARE METAPHORS IMPORTANT?

Metaphors have the power to change how we think about the world and about ourselves. By seeing something in a new light, we can understand it in new ways and make connections we would otherwise miss.

A metaphor can both reflect and shape the culture of the time.

It can help us make sense of complex or abstract things, like emotions or scientific concepts.

HOW DO METAPHORS SHAPE OUR LANGUAGE AND CULTURE?

Metaphors influence our language and culture in three ways.

Firstly, they help us to express complex ideas.
Secondly, they often help us to create new words.
And finally, they can become so commonplace that they become “dead metaphors” that we no longer notice them or think about them as metaphors.

A good example is the word “unicorn”.
The unicorn is a mythological creature with a single horn on its head, and it first popped up in writing around the year 900.
Around the 16th century, it came to be used as a metaphor for a rare or unusual thing.
Since then, it has become so overused that most people don’t consider it a metaphor anymore.

THE TAKEAWAY

The raft metaphor highlights the need to survive while maintaining core values and principles.

It reminds us that we do not need to “go with the flow” if we do not want to; we can actively change the course as necessary.

The raft also points to the importance of collaboration and team-working in times of change.
It shows us that we can learn from each other and build on our strengths to create something more significant than none of us could achieve alone.

With the world changing rapidly, and the need for new ways of thinking about our organisations, we need to reflect on the insights metaphors provide.

By understanding how metaphors work, we can use them to enrich our thinking and help us to “see” new things.


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10Nov

Silence, please

Eat that question, 2022

Having a good relationship with silence is a question of character.

Silence is always present around us, like that wallpaper you barely notice on the walls of certain houses.

Din is generated in the bowels of silence, and not vice versa.

SILENCE IS ALWAYS A DIFFERENT QUESTION

What happens when silence takes over inside and outside of us?

How many questions arise in a disorderly, ramshackle way piled on top of each other?

Silence is like good wine: it stuns and, as the Latins claim (in vino, veritas / in wine, the truth), it always contains the truth.
All possible truths.

However, meeting silence also makes your wrists tremble.

When that happens, you need to be ready for anything.

ACT IN SILENCE

In silence, every action is best performed.
You can follow them undisturbed, see them in full light, naked, in all their splendour.

Clearly see the world in action.
See the world in total transparency.

SILENCE IS A MAGNIFYING GLASS

Look into your silence.
You will find everything that truly has value.
You will find your treasures.

Make peace with silence.

Until next


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20Oct

Investigating the darkness

Lightnings splinters, 2022

I am Italian. I am Roman.
Throughout the course of human history, the lineage of man has lived and prospered in this country.

The humanity that inhabited these territories was heartfelt, inventive and creative in an almost obsessive, uncontrollable way.

The Rasenna people (better known as the Etruscans) have influenced and contributed substantially to the birth and development of Rome and its culture.

Rome was founded with an Etruscan rite, and the Senate of the Republic consulted the ‘Sibillini Books’ (probably of Etruscan origin) to make the most critical decisions for the fate of the Eternal City.

The oracular response is the word of the gods, and knowing how to interpret it is a sublime art.

The Aruspice or divinatory priest is, for the Etruscans and the Romans, the one who possesses exceptional sensitivity.
The intuition that comes directly from the gods.

‘ LIBRI FULGURALES ‘ OR THE BOOKS OF LIGHTNING

Ancient people loved and venerated the sky. Everything that nourishes man and the earth comes from above.
And in the signs of heaven, it is possible to read all kinds of messages.
Lightning is one of the most important celestial signs.

As a child, the vision of a lightning bolt in the gloomy, rain-filled sky caused me a deep fascination and amazement.
I am always attracted to that light that breaks through, violent and unexpected.
Pure energy.

I find a profound similarity between the artists of every age and these ancient visionary priests: their art consisted in looking into the dark and waiting for a sign.

Every artist is also waiting for that flash in the dark: his imagination will shine as lightning in his soul and generate new, prodigious, divine creations.

The ‘Libri Fulgurales ‘ were written only for those who would be able to interpret them.

IF YOU GAZE LONG ENOUGH INTO AN ABYSS, THE ABYSS WILL GAZE BACK INTO YOU.

In my life, I have never stopped studying, searching, and connecting data and notions that are only apparently distant.

The book of life is about everything and is written in every possible language.
Everything is in everything.

In my studies, philosophy plays a fundamental role.
The sentence by F. Nietzsche, which gives the title to this paragraph, seems to fit magnificently to the figure of these ancient interpreters of signs, visionaries of the future and their loving relationship with it.

The abyss sees, loves and never judges anyone.
Love the abyss.

Until next

Daniela


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18Aug

Like the heart’s beat

Resurrection, 2020

Today I want to address a bar topic, something that each of us discusses with friends and family daily:
the resurrection.

1 Resurrection of who?
2 Resurrection where?
3 Resurrection why?

This is not trivial: most people have a deep and paralysing fear of dying.

This fear belongs to men and women across the board, regardless of culture, religion, race or age.

Thousands of years of human reflection on the subject haven’t served to mitigate (or exorcise) death.

But I am convinced that many people are also afraid of being resurrected among you.

TRUE OR FALSE ISSUE?

It’s not about believing in something or having faith in someone.
It’s a question of observing a fact that is difficult to refute: life is something inextinguishable, as well as personal identity.

In other words: what exists is and will be forever.

Eternal means that it has no definite starting point and no end.

Being is eternal; the forms of being are infinite, continuously created and recreated and subject to permanent change.

Therefore death and resurrection are synonymous with the same action: mutation.

I answer the first question: being is the one who changes, who rises again.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

In our reality, we experience space as a place.
We think in terms of moving the matter from one place to another.

But if being is eternal (therefore not subject to the direct influence of time), in which place (or rather, dimension) do we rise again (that is, we change)?

Since the dimensions of reality are infinite in number, our choice has no limitations.

Don’t panic, dear friends!
We are always free to choose according to our needs and preferences.

There’s only one difference between who is afraid of dying (and being resurrected) and who is not: awareness.

I answer the second question: wherever we want and desire to be.

ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE IS RESURRECTION

The resurrection, described in this way, may seem almost a trivial action.

On the contrary, I would call it natural.

In the mists of time, some men have taken this action very seriously: resurrection is a matter of practice, worship and culture.

In ancient times the cult of Mithras (of oriental origins) generates more or less directly in the West the figure of Christ, who is the duplicate of the ‘Deus Sol Invictus’.

In the east, for example, in Hinduism, there is the idea of ​​’Mukti’ or the complete liberation of the human soul (atman) from the cycles of existence which occurs when it is finally ready to merge or dissolve entirely in the soul of the world ( Brahman).

The alchemical doctrine is the purest theory and practice of ‘transmutation’.
The Philosopher’s Stone is the symbol and image of mutation and resurrection.

The ‘Araba Fenice, always her.

STILL FEAR?

The third question I have to answer is: why be resurrected?

The answer is: that it’s inevitably part of being and inseparable from it.

Getting out of bed in the morning is also a resurrection …

Until next
Daniela


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11Aug

Easy as cooking a broth

Hooked, 2020

In his daily practice, each artist must answer two questions:
Because?
How?

They always appear in just this sequence order.
And after all, any action that’s negligible or fatally important follows this rule.

You always have to start from an idea, even if it may still be vague!

This idea wants to have a body, a shape.
And giving birth it isn’t always as easy as cooking broth.

TO BECOME THE IDEA

Why am I an artist?
Because I like the danger.
Because the unknown and the new upset me.
And even if they scare me, I can’t resist their charm.

What could be more multifaceted and changeable than a concept, an idea?
During my life, I have found myself involved in bizarre and dangerous situations, but creative activity is the most surprising.

When the artist creates, he always plays a game with himself, and it’s not to take for grant that he’ll come out to be the winner.
The important thing is never to take yourself too seriously: becoming an idea is exciting.

BUT WHAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND?

Yes, conceptual art is often irritating and outrageously ugly, but it never leaves the viewer indifferent.

The aesthetic of disgust always remains a type of aesthetic.
Arousing disgust is having hit the target anyway.

‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp and ‘Artist’s shit’ by Piero Manzoni docent.
But suppose you don’t like vulgar objects like urinals or shit… in that case, you can always turn your attention to something utterly neutral like Salvatore Gerau’s ‘immaterial sculptures’, where there is nothing that can disgust or upset you except emptiness.
The void is empty but, beware, it isn’t nothingness …

Think about this, carefully.

MAYBE IT’S NOT JUST A WORD PLAY

As an artist, I defend any free and conscious expression (but also unconscious is perfectly fine), and I always hope that it’s generated by an act of pure joy or anger and not just necessarily for the sake of mere aesthetical beauty.

Playing with concepts and ideas is undoubtedly an art too.

So try to move even an inch from your seat, and your perspective will inevitably change.

Maybe even drastically.
Maybe even for the better.

Until next
Daniela


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28Jul

Memory, the lost object

The darkness office, 2020

In 1995 the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos made the film ‘The Ulysses’ gaze’, a meditation on the value of memories, of those lost and those found.

What’s a memory?

Each individual guards, protects and preserves joyful and painful memories.
Memories are the foundations on which we build our personal history and the world to which we give life.

THE SPIDER’S WEB

Consider for a moment all the memories you have accumulated throughout your life.

Few or many, each memory is linked to another memory of yours and that of other individuals.
Memories form an iridescent spider’s web-like, and someone gets trapped inside it occasionally.

Never linger too long in the memory of the good times gone: the sweetness and joy in remembering will inevitably turn into nostalgia.
And nostalgia can poison every moment of the present time.

Never tie your daily life to the pain you felt and the revenge you still crave for past events.

Let them flow like the river, which remains unchanged even if the flowing water is never the same.

HISTORY

In a superficial and banal way, we could define history as a selection of some memories over others; in short, as a selection of events considered, rightly or wrongly, as worthy of being handed down.

The story we study is only ONE path among the many that arise simultaneously from a given event.

However, we don’t know the memories of all the participants; we don’t know the story of the multitudes who created that same event.

The story comprises only what is left among billions of ignored, forgotten memories.

COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL

Memory is also essential to who we are, both as a community and as individuals.

A personal value is that truth that pushes us to act.
And, thanks to memories, the life path and the experiences we made to achieve that value constitute our most authentic wisdom.

NEVER FORGET TO REMEMBER

Therefore, Ulysses never forgot Ithaca, the place from which he had departed and to which he would belong forever.

And like him, we should never forget who we are and where we come from to get where we want to go.

Remember not to forget, ever.

Until next
Daniela



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14Jul

The secret heart of the empire

Le città invisibili, 2021

The fascination of a book lies not only in what it says openly but also in what it whispers.

Specific concepts that are only hinted at or deliberately withheld are like pauses in music:
have the same value as the notes.

In Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’ there’s an empire made up of tangible things but also of things perceived, felt, and imagined.

That is to say, a complex organism comes to life in the white space that separates one word from another.

These elements present in the cities’ descriptions Marco Polo makes to the Kublai Khan constitute the reality that the Tartar emperor will never know directly.

The empire is too large and boundless, and Kublai is too old and tired to go and visit it.

Anyway, for a few days, through the foreigner’s words, the emperor will be able to reach the secret heart of his kingdom and hear it beat.

He’ll feel he owns it more than ever.

EVERYTHING IS A SYMBOL

Semiotics should be every artist’s field of study: symbols and images are daily bread for artists.

Calvino knew this well.

For instance, the city is a potent symbol, and what Marco Polo describes to the Khan are living signs of the human spirit.

When Polo talks of feelings and emotions, he’s also talking about towers, walls, houses, shops and streets.

THE DETAILS MATTER

In the book, the various locations of the empire are grouped into different categories: cities ​​of memory, desire, signs, exchanges, dead, hidden, continuous, etc …

The categories are precise characteristics of those places, which can be found in every city’s aspect or minor detail.

All cities have female names.

CITY – DESIRES AND FEARS

So imagine, for a moment, that you have to describe the city where you were born or live.

To the description of the monuments or places of significant civic or artistic interest, you would add the life you see in the streets and squares, desires, expectations and fears of the men who live there and who animate it.

Cities are not built with concrete, brick, wood or marble.
Cities are the embodiment of human ideals, large and small.

Indeed, it’s no coincidence that Rome is universally known as the ‘ Urbe ‘, which means the city par excellence.

Precisely as the Bible is the book par excellence.

And moreover, as the saying goes, ‘ Rome was not built in a day ‘: it takes the conditions, patience and dedication to realise a great ideal.

And perhaps eternity will not be enough since we also know Rome as the ‘ Eternal City ‘.
Then…

THE SOVEREIGN DISORDER

At the end of Marco Polo’s account, Kublai Khan feels himself, for the first time, lord and master of his empire.
He visualises it within himself and loves it as if it were one of his sons.

In conclusion, the chaos generated the cosmos of which our world is a part.
Disorder symbolises sublime creativity.

Until next
Daniela


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07Jul

A million memories

Il Milione, 2021

Let’s play a game.

Close your eyes and imagine you perceiving a pungent smell of spices, of fish mixed with the scents of precious essences.
Imagine hearing the quiet lapping of the sea, living in the hypnotic city of Venice and being young.

Your name is Marco Polo.

You certainly know that you live in the centre of an incredible and magical world, but you feel annoyed, restless and unsatisfied.

You have millions of expectations and desires.

So, sooner or later, you will leave home, as far away as possible and no matter where.

ALIEN ENCOUNTERS

Your journey towards unknown destinations fascinates you like the ‘song of the Sirens’, even when it could become dangerous and uncertain.

But, after all, you haven’t much to lose and much to gain.

Perhaps you’ll return home rich in goods and money, but in the end, your mind and heart will be full of incomparable visions and memories.

You’ll come back with a different light in your eyes.

TURNING ROUND AROUND (YOUR) WORLD

And after thousands of kilometres through lands and sea, deserts and glaciers, of encounters with emperors, kings, tempting girls and murderous marauders, you will feel the unstoppable need to return to your country, to your world.

That world that we always carry with us, always inside us.

Even the ‘different one’, we bring it inside us.

Therefore you will discover that you have walked not a path in a straight line but on a circle.

So you realise that you are the traveller, the journey and the destination.

PRAISE OF CURIOSITY

What the human story of the man Marco Polo and his fantastic memories show us it’s the supreme value of human curiosity.

The curiosity to know what is different from us to better know and understand ourselves.

And in that journey towards this knowledge, real or metaphorical, we will create a million priceless memories for ourselves and those who meet us.

This is the experience of true travelling for every human being.

Until next
Daniela


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02Jun

Like the rain in the desert

La manna, 2021

Biblical stories are often as surprising as fairy tales.

We all had the pleasure and privilege of being dragged into their magical reality during childhood.

The story of the manna that fell in the desert to feed the people of Israel fleeing Egypt is something that comforts, reminding us of abundance after famine and hunger.

The desert is no longer scary.

More value for everyone

Manna is almost synonymous with life, of well-being.

Its nature, however, is so ambiguous that it’s still not known precisely what it is.

Many believe that manna is a kind of resin or ‘honeydew’ of the Tamarisk tree,
and some intellectuals and artists think it’s a hallucinogenic mushroom instead.

But the issue doesn’t change: manna is a fantastic thing.

For me, manna is everything a person desires with all his soul.

It’s a precious diamond.

The kingdom of ‘It’s never enough’

In desperate situations, one thought always emerges clearly in our minds: ‘there is something wrong, something is missing …’.

We often end up ‘spreading’ this scarcity feeling over our entire existence.
There is never enough of everything.

We live in a society conditioned by many false needs, which create useless and unattainable
wishes.

Why poison life like this, waiting for the manna to fall from heaven?

We all need something special

The things that genuinely make us happy have no market and rarely fall out of the sky.

The things that make us happy are those that are perfectly in tune with our nature.

Something that comforts us

The ‘manna’ is, therefore, everything that can give us a valid comfort in the difficulties of everyday life,
everything that ‘saves’ us from inner balance loss.

We are all tightrope walkers on a tightrope over the abyss …

Until next
Daniela


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