I am doing a slightly different post this time. As I have started back my teaching things seem to go not so well. The number of people positive to Covid_19 has increased, luckily it is still small on a national scale, but well... we have not won this one yet. At the same time, I have started teaching, partly in class partly online and I am participating in a project in social robotics in creating a smart hand sanitizer and in making instructional videos for children to remind them to wash their hands and how to do it, according to the Danish authority, so I am constantly thinking of the pandemic also at work. I have made a series of illustrations, digital and in watercolor, regarding my feelings on the pandemic. It was strange to deal with it during the lockdown, I was in a sort of denial, which helped me to get through. I was in a protective bubble, surrounded by my husband and daughter, colleagues I was drinking coffee online, students and a thousand working tasks. Love in the time of Corona - is my last "thought" on the Covid situation. I try to represent in my painting how we all feel it is coming in between us, keeping us a part. I saw young people, including my daughter's friends and my students, who were feeling lonely during the lockdown and now finally reaching out at each other, yet not being cautious enough and now the nightmare starts again, threatening to divide us once more. The painting is inspired by a brilliant picture posted by Sara Mosberg Iversen from a wedding and it is intended as a 2020's reinterpretation of Magritte's hooded Lovers and the theme from Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, a book I have read and loved when I was a student at the university in Torino. The masks are the symbol of: - The threat to our health caused by the virus, - The sanitary emergency all over the world, - The emotional constraining and suffering brought by the demand for social distance The red and blue-grey colors are inspired by the colors typically employed in the media to show the virus. The masks are blue-green as we typically see clinical masks and make nice clear contrast with the red. Moreover, the red worn by the lovers is a warm color, typically associated to love and passion, while the blue-green of masks is a cold color, as if suggesting the cold and rational demand to wear masks and keep a port from our loved ones is in conflict with our need to get closer and for young people to be able to find love in this tragic world. I myself am not a romantic person, but the man in the painting ended up looking like my love, Andrea Valente, whom I don't know how I would have managed without and I thank him for bearing with me after 21 years together <3 During the Quarantine I also painted - In the Shadow of the Corona - a watercolor representing my feeling regarding the reopening of society, which to be honest I was afraid it was rushing a bit. In the painting I have represented the world shaped as the Covid virus, where the spikes of the virus becomes trees dividing us as we get out of our houses trying to regain our presence in the world. The spikes are also trees like in a park, representing the need to be outside after the Quarantine. I have painted a series of characters like: children playing, couples, families and people walking their dogs. I represented people with dogs as they were discussed a lot during the Quarantine as individuals who had to walk outside for the sake of their dogs, they were at time pitied and other times envied, especially in the countries with a total lockdown like Italy. There were also jokes about people who walked outside with a dog leash pretending that their dog ran away. The spikes also represent the risk of getting in touch with the virus, as the world around us as turned into a labyrinth, in which the spikes represent the walls of the labyrinth as the virus is dividing us with the requirement of social distance, but also posing a risk of infection, as we do not know if, when and how we might "meet" the virus on our way. The color are inspired by the colors in which the virus is represented in the media, so that the core of the virus-earth is grey and the spikes are red. Moreover, the red color is perceived as related to danger and blood, with reference to sickness, healthcare emergency, blood tests and vaccines. Well, thinking that The Blur sang: Love in the 90's is paranoid... Damon Albarn could not imagine what it could happen 30 years from there ;) Thank you for stopping by Bertie
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Here is a new blog on my gorgeous, clever and brave friends who are achieving greatness in their daily and apparently normal life. This time I am proud of introducing a heroic portrait of Valentina, an Italian literature, history and geography teacher, she is also a blogger, posting regularly on her Facebook page called "Portami il diario" - "Bring me your diary", from which she has recently published a book of the same title, in which she tells funny stories of her life as a teacher. I met Valentina in secondary grammar school, she was passionate about music, I remember that she introduced me to the Beatles, but also the piano and opera. I was also into classical music, ballet and drawing, and I had a period in which I was obsessed with swords. I remember I have sketched a few of them on her diary, which she told me she still has, incredible ;) Her blog started to attract attention in Italy as she told a story about how she introduced her students to the poem "L'Infinito" by Giacomo Leopardi, actually one of my favourite Italian poets. In "L'Infinito" Leopardi talks about a hill, a dear spot close to home where he was born, where he was used to spend time and meditate, losing himself in his thoughts. Valentina tried to connect with her students, presenting the story behind the poem as something that we all have experienced, like a dear spot connected to special memories, like the cafè where we met with friends year before or a spot where he used to go with our parents as kids. She also told them to take pictures on their mobile phone, to reflect on the meaning of the poem. I have painted here a portrait of Valentina, inspired by a picture she has posted on her Facebook page, while wearing a gown created by her students. She has always had colourful personality, which she expresses in her choice of clothing and accessories and I wanted to represent this quality of her in her portrait, specifically in the sunset sky and the reflections of the sunset on her gown.
I actually think that it her colourfulness that drove her to write her bright blog and novel and also to engage in new ways with her students in literary conversations. Unfortunately I am afraid I have overdone it a bit, luckily she seemed satisfied with her portrait. In the painting, I imagine Valentina wearing that gown and that the dress emerges from the pages of a book and from the initial verse of the poem: "Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle". The landscape is inspired by a picture I found online of the hill in Recanati, which is of course a famous historical spot in the area. And there is her, dancing from the book pages, turning towards us, like inviting us to share the beauty of the poem with her, while revealing to us the view of the hill in Recanati. This is supposed to suggest about literature teachers take their students on a journey to discover famous writers and their private lives. I hope you have enjoyed this portrait, thank you for stopping by a new one will appear soon Best Bertie |
AuthorFreelance illustrator and painter. Archives
May 2023
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