My Personal Journey into Art

I'm from Milan, Italy. I moved to the US a few decades ago and I love it here. I often say that I don't consider myself an Italian who lives in the US; I consider myself an American who was born in Italy!

From a very young age, I always had two big passions: making abstract compositions by assembling objects and playing soccer. The first drove my mom crazy and the second drove my dad crazy.

At probably five years old, being alone in the house because both my parents were working, I took down the kitchen door and assembled on it, on the four glass sections, all the various objects that I found around by gluing them on the door and then I painted them in gold! I liked it very much. My mom.......a little less 🙂

About soccer, we kids not having money and not being able to afford to buy a soccer ball, were playing with a flat stone, similar to the one used in ice hockey, on deserted streets, using the little gutter-drains as soccer goals. By the way, to handle that stone with my feet, really developed my accurate touch.

Of course, we were destroying a pair of shoes a week so, we ended up playing bare footed which contributed to improving my dribbling ability as the Brazilian kids do at the beaches!

Coming to art, my father was an important painter, super classic style, having graduated from the "Accademia Cimabue" of Brera in Milan so, my glued and painted compositions weren't exactly what he was hoping for but, of course, he accepted it even though, having played soccer professionally, he would also have preferred that I was going more in that direction and was coaching me very hard in order to develop my soccer fundamentals.

Growing up, my main compositions were made of found objects taken from beaches, kept together with "stucco" and then painted with watercolors and then preserved with varnish. Here a few unequivocal examples that, to be immodest, were selling really well:

While playing soccer and doing art, I was working in advertising selling the space in exclusive magazines about Yachts, Jets and top sports cars. But, around 40 years old, I decided to dedicate myself totally to making art and selling it! Just to keep being "immodest" I will use Picasso's words:

Anyone can paint, draw or sculpt but, an artist.......SELLS IT!

So, I can simply say that I was and I still am an........ARTIST!

In order to do that, an artist needs people that have a certain taste and the money to satisfy it. I moved to the Emerald Cost in Sardinia, where, the most well-to-do people in Europe go on vacation, particularly from Germany.

Below you can see my studio in the open and also at the beach:

On that marvelous island, I also experiment with Iron, using local artisans. I made many things for houses, pubs and restaurants.

Also, much-much-much more important than all the above, being a very lucky man, I met the love of my life there who become my wife Jessica ❤️ and then we moved to the US.

After moving here, my main goal in art technique was to, once and for all, eliminate the support on which I was gluing the pieces so, finally, the objects could hold itself together and the composition could be put on a wall or free standing!

Also, furniture like lounge chairs and tables......

I'll give you one more example of my work. This was done for a client in San Francisco to give him a little more privacy on his deck from the house on the side.

Thank you for reading!

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