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What is the creative process behind your pieces? I sometimes spend months just making a background or texture to go behind my paintings, sometimes I make something in a day. When I am painting I can have as many as a dozen paintings developing at the same time. I work on one until I don’t know what comes next and cycle to another piece if I get stuck or something needs to dry. It is difficult for me to get started if I don’t have a large chunk of time to work. I feel angry if I have to stop and go to work or do something social. I feel very sad/ ill if I do not get my art time during a week. This is hard to explain to a lot of people but my family gets it. Who and, or what influenced you the most on your artistic journey? My grandfather was an artist, a stonecutter from Italy. He encouraged me to do art but the rest of my family was not supportive. Art was looked down on in my home and only academics were encouraged. I didn’t get to take an art class until I was working on my masters degree and I had an elective! I think that deprivation actually fueled me in a backward way. Now it is my community in New London that motivates and encourages me. I am surrounded by amazing artists that love to collaborate and share. This is so nourishing. What message do you want your audiences to take away from your art? My message is always about the precious quality of life. My work has cheerful colors and themes, but it is in contrast to my worries about the environment and my personal battle with the ambivalence and lack of sacred respect for the earth and its living things. I want people to realize the gifts of time and beautiful in the world. image credit: Kim Abraham
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