Interview
Margherita De Pieri
Margherita De Pieri’s love of art started when she was a child. By the time she was an adolescent, art became a real refuge, outlet, niche, and mother. She drew sketches everywhere, in school books, on stray pieces of paper, in her diary, and on the desk.
At home, she took pictures and gained inspiration from them. She drew to calm down and to free herself from feeling that she was oppressed. In the years of high school, she reached her creative peak.
After an illness, it became essential to express herself with images. In dance, she had the opportunity to let off steam as well, but with the drawing, everything started completely from her. She did not have to follow any score or established choreography.
She developed an interest in anatomy and the use of pastel pencils, buying more and more suitable and professional material and theoretical books. Once she left her hometown and started living alone, figurative art became an integral part of her life. Now she has a room dedicated only to art and there all her creations reside. Her artistic expression is her inner journey and her relationship with herself portrayed as an image.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“Since I was a child I have had a great interest in everything that created strong amazement in me. You know as children, everything is always exciting and curious, but what struck me was the harmony between sound and color. I loved creating images in my head by listening to the voice of my mother or grandmother singing a lullaby, or the appearance of splashes of color when I listened to my music box play.
Different emotions were born in me and I liked being able to "not lose" them but to "relive them", proposing precisely those given sound-color combinations in my creations. One of my first sketches was when I was really little, it consisted of many lines stacked together with an orange marker. "What is that?" my mother asked me. "A boat with the sun and the sea" I replied, all satisfied. I remember that cartoons did their part, above all: "Fantasia-1940", "Spirit wild horse" and "Dumbo" cartoons with little dialogue.
I began by staring at representing eagles or horses, which soon became more and more complex; then came the period of sketching circles in the water. At home, I have a piece of the paper tablecloth on which I designed a pond where different animals drink. I later shifted my interest to the human figure when I realized how the eyes were more explanatory than anything else, and a minimal detail was enough to change the emotion they expressed.
The desire to impress feelings increased when it was impossible for me to represent those emotions, and I tried to put them in words. I would come to my parents' bed to recite a few lines of poetry to my mother. The first poem I decided to write down and also read to my elementary school teacher was at the age of 7.
Also in elementary school, for the first time, I came into contact with a keyboard, and with the world of music, I discovered that the keys "spoke" to me. I delved deeply into it even though I didn't know it was the famous "perfect pitch": Music-vibration-color-emotion. At the age of eight I devoted myself to dance, I drew, and often before falling asleep, I invented some verses. I was not aware of it, but already at that age art filled my every breath.
In childhood, amazement and the desire to freeze on paper those sensations or those figures that most attracted me, dominated my art. With the first approach to study drawing in primary school, I concentrated on being as faithful as possible in copying the images that were requested of us: learning to do this allowed me to enrich my creative memory, essential for being able to recreate similar subjects without having a model in front of me.”
What inspires you most?
“The looks, expressions, and physiognomy of people inspire me. Their postures and their silent dialogues. I am inspired by the atmosphere and feeling of a 'lived' memory. I like the stories behind every detail. I am inspired by music and by silence; to the sound of the words taken individually, to their cadence and to the colors they recall.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I draw because certain sensations and emotions are too big to be locked inside my body. There have been moods that by now I know are part of me and therefore I know they will always sadly keep me company. With those I create paintings, and when my 'typical' emotions exaggerate themselves, I just have to lighten myself a little, transporting a part of them on a surface destined to slowly come to life. Other times though, certain sensations still take me by the throat, burden me on the chest, and my head becomes cloudy, suffocating my thoughts. There are evenings in which I do not close my eyes and wait for calm, I take a paper and pencil and eject that "poison".
Each painting has a story of its own. "Spleen" received its name during the painting of a long creation. "Melancholy Intimate" was born as a representation of the same title, the result of a state of mind that had been my carpet for a long time. "Resa" received its title only after a year. "Red Bile" is instead the perfect representation of an almost immediate outburst (it took me two afternoons) of a rage that had oppressed me for days, and was given the title as soon as it was finished. "Decompression" represents the desperate need to throw out, to scream and empty oneself: it took me less than ten minutes and the title was born as the opposite of my mood at that moment. Each painting is the result of a mood due to specific events or is born from my emotions that are the background to my life.
My drawings are traces of my own world, but they are also messages to remind you of memories and situations. They are an outstretched hand towards those who feel something strongly in seeing them, as a sign of understanding they say: "you are not alone". I am not afraid of not being understood, indeed I am aware that it is not always possible to be, and this I think has a wonderful side, depending on what is interpreted. You have the opportunity to know people in their diversity and depth. This makes me feel closer to people, closer to their hidden selves.
My art has the purpose of giving and expelling, as well as that of attracting, welcoming, helping and consoling. I have a strong need to communicate and make people feel understood and not alone. Is it possible that this need of mine may actually reflect what I would like to receive in return? Absolutely… I know what it's like not knowing which shoulder to lean on or not having a place to put your weaknesses; I would like to prevent this from happening to people. Sometimes an emotion is easier to deal with if it has a name and a ‘face’ or even better if it becomes a color and a figure.”
“My creations always start from a strong need. When it comes to “direct” paintings, I only listen to the instinct and strong desire that I have - making an image of that emotion that I want to expel. In those cases, the goal is to experience that feeling again when I look at the painting.”
How would you describe your work?
“I admit that talking about my creations by calling them ‘my art’ already makes me feel good, even though it is difficult for me to even define it. Surely two adjectives jump to my mind: 'melancholy' and 'expressive'. I like to represent the feelings that each of us avoid and does not tell. I go against the grain since today there is no room for fragility as it is seen as weakness, even if we talk about it with (s) do-gooders. Today we think about the career, we are presumptuous, self-centered, communication is poor, we are convinced that we know everything and we do not accept advice, we do not know the art of patience and waiting, we have lost the simplicity of everyday life and everything is always too filtered. Making art today means going against it; true art, the one felt. I think today's true artists are a presence of fundamental and silence, whose absence would create a chasm of apathy.”
Which artists influence your work most?
“Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Zdzslaw Beksinski, Vincent Van Gogh, Auguste Renoir, Francesco Hayez, are the painters who impressed me the most with their works. However, I realize that I don't have strong influences. I certainly prefer the language of the Impressionists and Expressionists and some Contemporary artists.”
What is your creative process like?
"When the paintings are of long-term creation, I place a lot of importance in the overall structure, so much so that I often first make a miniature sketch on a notebook, then I carefully search for the colors based on the feeling they convey to me. I like them to decide the development at times, not really being an expert yet, I find myself having plays of color that I don't always expect. Furthermore, when I want to leave a "hidden message", I meticulously study the subjects to be associated with the main one or the characteristics to be dominated.
Sometimes I even dream of my paintings and it's the night that completes them. Still, other times I remain in my chair for hours watching my "son" (for me they are like children) come to life in front of me, with the terror of ruining him in the process not knowing exactly how: I wait for him to talk to me. Sometimes it's exhausting to create. I always want to represent something very specific and every detail must bring me back to that particular emotion; it’s critical. This is why I say "exhausting". When that feeling, to which I would like to give a shape, has not been experienced enough times to know every nuance, I have to dig inside and rely on any external suggestion.
I see a subject in my mind, but too blurry. I glimpse at an attitude, but not the complete pose. The first to appear clear, however, is always the temperatures of the color and the atmosphere and the vibrations deriving from these. I have never made or studied preparatory sketches or "anatomical diagrams", for this reason, I like to know the human body: at least I know how to be faithful to the truth. It is a constant search for images that recall that blurred figure. It is like this for hours if not days ... I rummage everywhere: among my books, on the internet, among my photos, in magazines and I take pictures. Then I try to go it alone after receiving all this information.”
What process, materials, techniques, etc., do you use to create your artwork?
“In the early years that I was dedicated to drawing I always simply used my pencil and I remained faithful to it for years. I then discovered that my fear was that of not being up to par in using colors. The little I knew was thanks to drawing lessons at school and a few sifting through the books at the stationery. Thanks to my art middle school teacher, I started getting familiar with nuances. I started with the studio Derwents then I moved to the Caran d'Ache; I started buying theory books and discovered the different materials and combinations that can be used and I fell in love with pastels.
I love being in direct contact with color through my fingers, their mixing, the games they create, their delicacy, and the nuances they create. With them I have learned (and am learning) as I create, indulging their every surprise. I wish I could also use oil paint, but for reasons of time and space it is not yet possible for me. Regarding the color itself, I like to imagine "everything connected to everything"; each color corresponds to an emotion, a state of mind, a vibration, a dynamics, a sound, a movement and a noise. Each color, like everything, has positive and negative: black can be like strong energy that devours, depressing; as well as the complete absorption of every color and therefore of every energy.
It always depends a lot on the way and the context and the image: lines, dynamics, and perspectives play. Then, for the person, it is also necessary to think about excess or absence. Perceiving excess of red is not good, feeling in harmony with red is a symptom of balance with those given vibrations, having the need means that they are missing or there is an excess of the opposite. I see each of us as a color palette, each unique in its being. We are born influenced by many factors: origins, external energies, place, context. Then development also modifies us, indeed, I correct myself: it enriches.
With us the palette grows and every color that is placed on it is never eliminated again. What comes from the outside can affect the entire palette and create a general chaos, such as creating the predominance of one color. Or it can come with all the calm and sweetness of this world only in some places, perhaps enriching only precise colors. There are those sensations that soften the raw and sharp tones, but perhaps strengthen others that risk going in excess. You are mature when you learn to use the colors available without imbalances.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I believe the artist, the true artist (not the one who creates only to sell or to have a name) lives very much alone unless he is "among his fellow men”. We live in an era where genuineness, sincerity, and spontaneity do not have much space. We are suffocated by perfection or by the extremeness of imperfection as rebellion; we are crushed by excess and there is no longer any nuance. Everything must have a definition, a place of its own; there is an exasperation of the "I am", as much as of wanting to live undisturbed in the apathy of routine. I think that art today is a way to give air to the lungs; a way to make everyone rediscover the nuances of the world; a way to remind the heart of each individual of the essence of simply ‘living’ in the depths. Art is explicit and silent dialogue. It is a cry that begs us to remain human.”
