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AS IS | Anna Madia

Artist

From Turin, Italy

Based in Champagne Department, France


Anna's paintings are realistic, yet cloaked in a characteristic dreaminess. Her work brings back the memories of classical and old masters, as if she continued their journey to record the modern life





A: Please, tell us a bit more about yourself. What brought you into art?


AM: The calling to be a painter was clear in my head since I was a child: at 7 years old I drew my first life portrait; my little sister in her bed. I still remember that moment. At the time, I had been having some troubles with language at primary school and I found a personal "therapy" that helped me fight it: drawing, drawing and drawing! Art is my freedom, my vertebral column.


A: What inspires you the most?


AM: The vocation for the portrait, literature and theatre have nourished my painting practice for years. Ophelia, Alice in wonderland, The Girl Without Hands, are some of the characters that I have chosen to pay homage to through my artistic work.


Sleep and coma were key elements of the past series titled Sleepwalking. Personal memories are important too: my family had this ritual ritual of washing the wool of the mattresses every year. Every corner of the house was filled with soft cream-colored substance and I spent hours and hours playing with it and imagining snow-capped peaks and bizarre sights. This tradition was a ritual of love and liberation for me. The symbolic stigma of sleepless nights, nightmares and infirmity: the bed once again becomes the crib in which a new cycle starts. Wool, doilies and hair are the gateway to this world suspended between reality and dream.


And I’m working to a new project but it's a secret!


A: Do you have any specific rituals while working (creating)?


AM: Yes!!!!! A big coffee!!! And I usually listen a lot of music: I have a special playlist that helps me concentrate and have the right energy. Sometimes I’m obsessive, my studio’s neighbor suffer a little!


The new entry on the list of my rituals is listening to ghost stories...


A: What would you recommend to someone who's new to art (whether artist or just an admirer), what to begin with?


AM: I think it is very important to have fun, to smell the painting and not be afraid of the result. I actually have some pupils and the passion is the secret. It’s also important to know all the possibilities of art and I encourage them to go to see exhibitions, spectacles and concerts.


A: What are your three favourite adjectives related to art?


AM: Freedom, passion, expression




A: The best angle to look at art is ...?


AM: With our personal intimacy, with the eyes of a child...


A: The perfect phrase to start any conversation about art is: ...?


AM: "How do you feel about this?"


A: Must-read books to help us talk about art (or do we even need them)?


AM: I love discovering new points of view and finding new questions to ask. I think it is important for opening up our creativity and nourishing our knowledge.


A: If you could change one thing in the art world - what would it be?


AM: I hope that one day places of art education will be more and more important in our society.


A: Please, share your favorite quote (not necessarily related to art).


AM: Be sincere.


Thank you!


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