All posts in Fine Art

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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13Oct

Amazing Geometry

The unexpected guest, 2017

In symbolic language, the stairs have an ambivalent meaning.

The stairs can be climbed or descended.

A proverb says, ‘ The world is a stairway: in life there’s ups and downs ‘.

What fascinates me about the staircase is the fact that it’s an immobile structure whose function is to promote movement.
The staircase is an architectural representation of dynamism.
Its geometric shape is simple, the maximum of functionality.

Over the centuries, the most famous architects transformed the stairs into works of art.
In its realisation, the staircase often takes the shape of a spiral, another symbol of eternal movement.

THE ESCHER GAZE

M.Escher represented the stair as the essential element of an infinite spiral in his engravings.

His characters spend their lives passing from one environment to another, imprisoned in a long sequence of infinite stairs, in a geometrically harmonic reality.

It’s no coincidence that the artistic movements of Cubism, Pointillism and Vorticism were born in the early ‘900, which inextricably linked their names to geometry and mathematics.

Even abstract art, however, has its own precise geometric balance, where the eye of the beholder rests on creating his personal view.

HITCHCOCK LOVED STAIRS TOO

The spiral and the stairs are the key elements of the final scene of the famous film by Alfred Hitchcock entitled (not surprisingly) ‘Vertigo’.

The title refers to vertigo the protagonist has from a severe accident.
But a closer reading of the events suggests that Judy’s character is also the centre of a spiral that wraps around itself, formed by her alter egos, Madeleine and Carlotta.

SURPRISE YOURSELF

Material reality is a fantastic and kaleidoscopic geometric symphony.

So take your time up or down the stairs.

Until next
Daniela


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06Oct

Solitude beings

Our house, 2016

For me, solitude has represented a precious value and a severe and impartial life teacher.

Loneliness (inserted in the proper perspective and certainly not in absolute value) is a condition that allows us to know, reach and preserve the most precious state that governs the spiritual, mental and physical health of the human being: equilibrium.

In music, the pause value is the same as the notes.
The result of this balance is harmony.

If you can make complete silence within yourself, you will have the surprise and joy of hearing the sound of your true, authentic voice.

LISTEN

When you accept the challenge that solitude demands, you are taking an invitation to the most intimate knowledge of yourself.
Accepting solitude means recognising that you are the fulcrum of your existence, the pillar that will never collapse, the safe shelter and the counsellor who makes no mistake and will never lie to you.

Never fear silence, don’t be scared.

BEATA SOLITUDO

The famous phrase in which solitude is defined as ‘blessed’ is Latin.
Sublime definition.

IN MEDIUM STAT VIRTUS ( VIRTUE LIES IN THE MIDDLE, IN THE BALANCE POINT )

However, one thing must be pointed out: the proper balance to which I refer is the condition of equilibrium between loneliness and everyday sociality.

In this case, also, a Latin proverb comes to clarify the issue. It reaffirms the art of living is knowing how to manage the balance of opposites.

For the Romans, the wise man is the one who lives ‘cum grano salis’, that is, always with intelligence.

BLAISE PASCAL AND JOHN DONNE, AKA THE OPPOSITES, TOUCH ONE ANOTHER

The philosopher Blaise Pascal and the poet John Donne describe the actions men can use to reach happiness with different words, so much so that they seem to have opposite perspectives.

But in reality, their points of view are nothing more than the face of the same coin:

  • ‘ All of man’s misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room ‘ (Blaise Pascal)
  • ‘ No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine… ‘(John Donne)

We are all here, in the same boat.
So don’t row against the current and be silent.
Shhhhhhhhhh…

Until next
Daniela


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29Sep

Glass walls

Glass walls, 2016

I am in love with everything that is glass made. Artistically speaking, glass is one of my great passions, an obsession of mine.

In city development (especially in the last 40 years), architects worldwide have favoured glass as a building material for its transparency, which is synonymous with brightness.

The massive use of glass in buildings (public and private) is justified everywhere by the increased number of facilities and their growing proximity.
Little space between buildings means less light in each apartment.

Glass is functional to increase the pleasantness and livability of homes. In the northern countries, this has always been the primary construction practice.

But in the extensive use of glass in new apartments and offices worldwide, there is a precise psychological indication: daily life is increasingly exposed, an invitation to exhibitionism and voyeurism.

The intimate life becomes like a fiction movie to see on TV, a perfect product for mass consumption.

YOU CAN LOOK BUT NOT TOUCH

This whole thing is like a push towards everyday life virtualization and spectacularity.

The glass allows you to see but also to isolate.
A window (which can always be opened if desired) becomes like the glass of a TV or Personal Computer monitor.

But a wall, even if made of glass, always remains a wall.

ALL THE WORLD IS A SHOWCASE

The phenomenon of globalization is the main responsible for the existence commodification of each of us.

Look around you.
Many young people think that being an ‘influencer’ is a profession.
For many of them, it represents a career to invest in.

This phenomenon represents, for me, the saddest thing in the world: the overwhelming power of emptiness is winning in their hearts.

LIKE IN AN AQUARIUM

I have bizarre dreams in my life’s most challenging and stressful times.
The scenarios have changed over the years, but an ever-present element remains unchanged.

In the dream, somewhere, there is always an aquarium; sometimes, it is just a little glass vase with only one inhabitant, but often it appears enormous and can contain thousands of individuals.

But no endangered fish or exotic, colourful species swim in these aquariums. Human beings swim there with dull, glassy eyes.

An unpleasant vision that feels apocalyptic.
I wake up upset, nervous, and furious.

THE VALUE OF TRANSPARENCY

My photographic works are full of glass because transparency is one of my personal values.
My transparency doesn’t indicate the quality of being ‘invisible’, but it’s the possibility of looking through and beyond.
Anyway, you can always buy a good pair of glasses.

See you.
Daniela


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22Sep

Alienation

Rome 30th level, 2016

I often hear our society defined as ‘alienated’, the realm of alienation.
In 2017 I dedicated one of my artistic projects to the city of Rome, a megalopolis that, from the very first day of its foundation, had to face this issue.
For the ‘Eternal City, ‘ alienation is a condition of daily life. In this reflection, I will briefly talk to you about the multiple meanings that the Latin word ‘alienus’ has assumed up to the present day.

STRANGERS, BUT ONLY AT THE FIRST MEETING

The first meaning of alien is foreign, strange, or outsider.
Since the dawn of time, Rome has been a city that welcomes anyone who arrives within its walls amicably, as long as they are always willing to follow its laws and customs.
If you are willing to adapt, you are immediately considered one of us.
So the first rule says: if you don’t want to feel like a stranger, it’s enough to be respectful and polite in a house that is not yours.
You will be considered different, but not strangers.

NO, I DON’T FEEL INVOLVED

Alien can also mean distant, in the sense of ‘ not feeling involved ‘.
The meaning can also be more extreme: hostile, adverse and contrary.
Large metropolises often predispose to these moods, especially those with miserable lives and failed relationships.
But Rome, by its very nature, has one heart that admits nobody to be continually treated hostilely. Rome is so extended that you will eventually meet someone in the same condition as you. Rome loves everyone.
The mirror name of ROME is AMOR: love.

LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND NOT RECOGNISE YOURSELF

This situation can happen to everyone.
After a night of revelry, you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and be shocked.
Unfortunately, some people feel increasingly split in two every day, even if they don’t drink or use drugs.
And slowly but surely, the distance becomes unbridgeable and the surrounding world a hostile place.
They no longer know where to flee to find protection and shelter; they feel like strangers, even in their own bodies.
Mental illness becomes the only company, their escape route.
In 1548 Rome officially opened a structure to welcome the ‘poor crazy people, that is, all those who are poor in the brain and crazy of any sex and nation’.
And during many centuries, the hospital of ‘Santa Maria Della Pietà’ restored thousands of people to social life.
Throughout history, not all societies have rejected, tortured and vilified the mentally ill.

NOTHING BELONGS TO ME ANYMORE

To alienate can also mean getting rid of something or antagonising someone.
It is said ‘to alienate an asset’ or ‘to alienate someone’s trust ‘.
All of this can be painful, but it can also be a release.
The coin always has two sides.

GOOD NEWS – OMNIA MEA MECUM PORTO

The last note I want to write is not about alienation. On the contrary, it is about something no one can alienate and ever lose.
Our personal history and the knowledge we accumulated through thousands of life experiences are our true wealth, the wisdom we gained through joy and pain.

Anything can happen to us during our lifetime, any kind of misfortune ranging from the banalest to the most terrible.
But as Biante of Pirene (one of the Seven Greek Elders ) said: all I have that is most precious is always with me.

So, with this great news, that’s all, folks.
And remember to say hello to the aliens for me.

Until next
Daniela


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15Sep

Insomnia

Cannot sleep, 2016

What makes the night a particular time?
From the dawn of humanity, the night is the time when we open the door that allows us to pass from the diurnal dimension to the reality of dreams.
The dream is another reality that we frequent every day.
We live in sleep, dreams and nightmares.

We dream with open eyes as with closed eyes.

A DREAM OR NIGHTMARE LIFE

Problems arise when we cannot easily fall asleep, and we cannot cross the threshold of the dream world.

Insomnia is the most common pathology in humans.
Not sleeping means draining your physical energies; it weakens the mind and prostrates the soul.

Without sleep and without dreams, you die.

Since the beginning of their history, medicine and pharmacopoeia have been concerned with sleep disorders.
We can still efficiently use substances such as chamomile, valerian, passion flower and lemon balm.

Or we can use the trick of counting, counting, counting … counting sheep.

Animals that reassure.

COUNTING SHEEP

Whoever invented this method was perhaps a simple shepherd.
Perhaps because the bucolic landscape of a distant and unreachable Arcadia belongs only to an ideal world, but dreaming is a wonder; it’s beautiful.

Not dreaming depresses you and condemns you to live in a two-dimensional world. A flat land.

I have known several people who were afraid of dreaming.
Genuine fear of living.

SWEET DREAMS

I don’t think that dream is an escape or a secondary, irrelevant dimension of reality.

The dream world is exactly like the waking world.
It has its own rules, where we make experiences consistent with its nature.

Being so close, these two realities significantly influence each other.
Using dreaming experiences is a daily practice for anyone, even when we don’t realize it.

Dreams (and nightmares) are a forge where we produce solutions to what we consider problems in the waking state.
I said solutions, not problems.

A real gold mine.
Sweet dreams.

THE NIGHT BRINGS COUNSEL

… and that’s all, folks.

TENDER IS THE NIGHT

Whatever the cause of your insomnia is, face it with peace of mind.

The more you worry and magnify the problem (which certainly is severe), it will produce precisely the result you don’t want.
Anxiety will become your inseparable companion.

Love your nightmares, and don’t blame yourself unnecessarily.
Accept yourself, and everything will become more bearable.

So, I wish you a good night.

Until next
Daniela


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08Sep

Who will be the last man?

Up or down?, 2016

Today many people, both those belonging to a religion and atheists, believe in the coming of apocalyptic times.

These people are convinced that any critical change (historical, ethical/moral, environmental) leads the world towards a potentially catastrophic end.
Yet, throughout history, there was always someone somewhere on our planet who preached or predicted the coming of such apocalyptic times.
Which, however, no one has ever lived.

Apocalypse, not received.

Whoever puts these distorted and false visions into circulation has a goal that has always remained unchanged throughout history: to arouse fear in the population.

Those who exercise power know that terror and all its variations are the supreme weapons to govern undisturbed.
Whoever is afraid magically transforms himself into the perfect enslaved person.
Terror overwhelms the mind.

THE CHARM OF THE END

But there is more.

Humanity is fascinated by the only goal impossible to reach: extinction.
Human nature as a whole, intended as the set of all possible and probable human existences, cannot be extinguished and will never reach the end.

The human spirit will always create a new situation which will develop new experiences.

No development follows a straight direction, much less from the bottom to the top.
There is no improvement in evolution.

History shows us that evolution is a circular movement called continuous transformation.

Each created being contains all its possible future states.
And the shape that changes is always present and inalienable from all those future shapes.

Life is inalienable.

APPARENT DISTANCES

Why does evolution have a circular motion?
Because the circular one is the infinite movement and defines the perfect shape.
Because the movement of time is not actually linear but circular.

All ancient cultures called it ‘the time of the gods’, of the immortals.
But the gods were created by the fervent human imagination.

Only man exists, eternal and omnipotent.

And therefore, the distance between the hypothetical first and last man is only apparent.
Because the first and last points in a circular series don’t exist.

WHAT HAS NEVER EXISTED WILL NEVER RETURN

So, if the apocalypse is unrealised and unrealisable, it means that it’s only an element with which humanity plays.

Just as it plays eternally with the idyllic time diametrically opposed to the apocalypse:
The golden age of humanity has never existed and will never return.

ASK YOURSELF THE QUESTION AND GIVE YOURSELF THE ANSWER

The human spirit joyfully plays with the wheel of time.

As omnipotent and omniscient, we can never forget who we were, who we are and who we could be.

We are the solution.
Use your desire, the key that will open every door.

Until next
Daniela


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01Sep

The courage to be bizarre

Red room, 2016

I would like to share some unusual thoughts and bizarre questions with you.

Human existence is characterised by searching for an elsewhere to be, to create new and glorious experiences.
We all crave an elsewhere, at any cost.

But where is an elsewhere?

Strange question, but let’s not get upset before there is reason to.

The ‘elsewhere’ is much more than an ordinary physical place.
The ‘elsewhere’ is not even in our heads.
Elsewhere is an infinite number of dimensions, all perfectly accessible, in which we can create unlimited experiences.

So, we can proceed with our talk here or elsewhere.
This fact is advantageous.

WHAT SHAPES AN EXPERIENCE

A fascinating little puzzle.

The compulsive and tireless creator ( that each of us is ) loves infinite variety and extreme personalisation.

Perception is the tool which brings out that unique and unrepeatable vision of an event that I will call ‘my’ experience.

Think about how the same event can generate experiences of opposite signs in different people.

For most people dying is a tragedy; for some, a liberation and, for a few, even an honour.

But dying is and remains only a routine in this dimension, in which it’s considered an essential experience and an inevitable factor.

Ciak, action: death makes us unique.

DON’T BE AUTOMATIC

Let’s make a brief summary of what influences our perception:

1 Our culture
2 Our personal story
3 The automatic association with a particular sensation

When we were children, someone scolded us and gave us a hard slap in the face.

Most of us will likely have associated the slap with guilt, error, humiliation, pain, anger, shame and despair.

Thus, if someone in adult life slaps us again, it’s very likely that we will associate the same feelings and emotions with this experience.

Maybe even the same reaction.

But if we consciously change our perception, the slap received can take, for example, the evangelical meaning of ‘turn the other cheek’.

In short, if we don’t insert the automatic pilot, we are always free to decide how and what to feel in every single experience.

A horse of a different colour.

EVERYTHING MATTERS BECAUSE, IN REALITY, IT MATTERS NOT

From whatever perspective you are evaluating your life, be aware that it’s only a point of view and that even the most miserable among existences can be the most exciting and adventurous and that a life lived with ease can be a masterpiece of endless boredom.

And for today, that’s all, folks, from my scarlet study.

Until next
Daniela


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25Aug

Time splinters

Recreation time, 2018

Talking about time would take an infinite amount of time.

I will therefore try to splinter only a few fragments.

I propose my personal experiences and observations of the time, and I promise you that I’ll be concise.

I’ll not waste your precious time.

TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK …

The sand runs fast between the fingers.

I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow, my love; I can’t wait to see you again.

Do you think it’s the proper hour to return home?

When I immerse myself in creating a new work of art, time doesn’t exist.

When I make love with the one I love, time freezes.

When I do things I don’t like, time never goes by.

When I’m in good company, time flies.

But the clock, imperturbable, is always the same:
tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock …

TIME AND ITS FORMS

Time is one of the dimensions in which the being expresses itself as action.
It’s a dynamic dimension of being.

This is a list of the main types of time, which are just some of its forms:

1 Natural time
2 Cultural time
3 Psychological time
4 Dreamtime

All these forms are the ones that most influence our experience in this dimension of reality.

Our language is also shaped by time because almost all of our actions are placed in the temporal dimension.

Are you bored?
Are you wasting your precious time reading what I have written?

Or are you already imagining or daydreaming about another world, perhaps without time?

THERE ‘S A TIME FOR EVERYTHING; THAT’S THE NOW

Men have always known (it doesn’t matter if they are aware of it or not ) that the only point of time in which they live their earthly experience is the present.

This is an irrefutable reality.

Some of us can also interact with the past and modify the events.

But that’s another story.

THE ETERNAL, THE INFINITY

The splinter of an object doesn’t allow us to see the thing in its entirety.

At most, we can only deduce or imagine it.

So, with the passing of time, we have to seize the moment.

The peculiarity of the temporal dimension is that it has no time, or rather, its dimension has no limitations.

There is an eternal and infinite time, where all its possible forms are contemporary and inalienable.

Here I stop.
Today is Sunday, and I have my recreation time.

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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