{"id":8831,"date":"2024-06-21T12:12:16","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/?p=8831"},"modified":"2024-06-26T00:44:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T00:44:39","slug":"mariaceleste-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/2024\/06\/21\/mariaceleste-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariaceleste Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"8831\" class=\"elementor elementor-8831\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6efdb43 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"6efdb43\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0267333 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"0267333\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 22-05-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<h4>Can you tell us about your early experiences with art and what initially inspired you to start creating?<\/h4>\nMy early art experiences started since my childhood, at elementary schools. I remember when I was five that I filled my notebooks with my drawings inspired by cartoons,anime, bizarre situations: I\u2019ve always find that a natural way to express my interior world, probably due to my reserved behavior. I won two scholastic prizes when I was ten! I was so happy and enthusiastic.\n\nDuring next years I attended Art High School and the Fine Art Academy. I always try to make new art experiences and experimenting new techniques, I think there\u2019s never a limit to creation\u2019s potential and I think that the best is never stop and keep to \u201ctravel\u201d creating.\n<h4><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8840 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2199\" height=\"1700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm.jpg 2199w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-1024x792.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-768x594.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-1536x1187.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-2048x1583.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-butterphant_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-600x464.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2199px) 100vw, 2199px\" \/>How has living and working in Sicily influenced your artistic journey and the themes you explore in your work?<\/h4>\nEspecially in last years, Sicily and the urban context where I live inspired me so much. I made satirical artworks inspired by famous sicilian artworks as The Annunciate made by Antonello da Messina or the clockwork\u2019s lion of the Messina\u2019s Dome. These are works where I represent the icons of the city where I live in a \u201csacrilegious\u201d way through the local food, the arancino. I choose this way to criticize (but also to celebrate) the point of view of many people that give more importance to food than to the art.\n\nSince five years I discovered another unexpected face of my city: the outsider artist Giovanni Cammarata, that just with recycled objects and cement made a fantastic world in a peripheral degenerated area in Messina, Maregrosso, populated by fantastic creatures, stylized dinosaurs, the famous yellow elephants, historical characters, exotic animals and more, transforming his poor house in a merry and surreal place.\n\nI admire so much the story and the work of this artist. I visited for the first time his art house five years ago and from that moment I\u2019ve been positively shocked, I never saw anything like that before.\n\nI hope that many people could know his artworks also through mine too.\n<h4>You mentioned that art is the most sincere way for you to express yourself. Can you elaborate on what this means to you personally?<\/h4>\nMy eyes and my hands are my tongue. I believe that it\u2019s surely for me, basically why I\u2019m a very introvert person and silent too. Express myself through words isn\u2019t easy for me, it\u2019s hard in relationships too. I feel more comfortable and I have fun too \u201cspeaking\u201d by the figurative language.\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-8841 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-230x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-786x1024.jpg 786w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-768x1001.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-1179x1536.jpg 1179w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-1571x2048.jpg 1571w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm-600x782.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_Elephant-Mother-goddess-I_2024_Bic-pen-on-paper_21x30cm.jpg 1688w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/>What inspired you to focus on anthropomorphic animals, especially elephants, in your current creative period?<\/h4>\nIn this period I\u2019m focusing on making these anthropomorphic elephants surely because to Giovanni Cammarata\u2019s influence. It has been an excellent starting point.\n\nIn general elephants are associated at memory, longevity, sensibility, strength; they\u2019re also creatures similar to us human beings for many aspects: they pay tribute to their deceased similar, they celebrate the birth of a new puppy elephant. Moreover, they have a matriarchal society.\n\nUnfortunately, they were also used during human conflicts as the Punic wars: I\u2019ve often represented these creatures in war equipment with some modified features as the fangs and the tail replaced with pencils or brushes on the back and head too. I made this to represent them as symbolic totem of an imaginary war, where elephants are identified with the strength of Art and life against the degrade, depression, empty, solitude.\n<h4>How do you channel your nightmares, fears, and positive emotions into your artwork?<\/h4>\nI make often this kind of works while I\u2019m emotional involved,as I\u2019ve been in a trance state. So, when I don\u2019t live that situation I make hard drawing these subjects. When I want to represent my suffering I drawing hearts or damaged self portraits surrounded by disgusting insects, especially cockroaches. They disgust me, I\u2019m terrorized! When I\u2019m stressed or sad, I dream them. But the real nightmare is find them near!\n\nI drew this kind of subjects also for particular themes, as religious ones. I\u2019ve often represented saints or religious figures as cockroaches because for me they have a negative meaning.\n\nPositive emotions are represented by fantastic elephants and animals: recently I draw them as angels that fight against demons represented as a cockroach, symbols of depression, nightmares, sadness,suffering.\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8842 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-elephant-of-the-Strait-of-Messina_2022_Pastels-on-paper.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"781\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-elephant-of-the-Strait-of-Messina_2022_Pastels-on-paper.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-elephant-of-the-Strait-of-Messina_2022_Pastels-on-paper-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-elephant-of-the-Strait-of-Messina_2022_Pastels-on-paper-768x586.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_The-elephant-of-the-Strait-of-Messina_2022_Pastels-on-paper-600x458.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/h4>\n<h4>Why do you prefer using pastels, Bic pens, ink, and acrylics in your artwork? How do these mediums help you achieve the desired expressiveness?<\/h4>\nI\u2019ve always felt a certain attraction for Bic and ink pens. I\u2019ve always been fascinated since I was reading early mangas and comics and I\u2019ve always desired to inking my drawings to give them life. Bic pen is amazing, it\u2019s a simply but efficient technique that everyone can use in any moment and on any support. Also, there are of different colors, green and orange too. Green pen is my favorite!\n\nIt\u2019s possible to experiment different combination as green\/orange, black\/red, blue\/red and more.\n\nI\u2019m experimenting ink since about two years, I\u2019m in love of this technique: it\u2019s so similar to painting but so much more versatile and efficient. I love pastels for their shades, they\u2019re both attractive and fragile and it suffices that a more touch to make the artwork wrong or make it perfect.\n\nI like associate them to other materials as colored pencils or watercolors to create more volume.\n\nAbout acrylics I prefer them for their vivid colors and for rapid dry, besides their convenience.\n<h4><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-8843 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-233x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-797x1024.jpg 797w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-768x987.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-1195x1536.jpg 1195w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-1593x2048.jpg 1593w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-600x771.jpg 600w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mariaceleste_Arena_My-true-face_2023_Graphite-on-paper_36x295cm\ufffd-scaled.jpg 1991w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/>How do you feel when you observe your completed works? Do you see them as static pieces, or do they continue to evolve in your mind?<\/h4>\nIt depends by kind of artworks I made and above all due the period that it has been created. Usually I\u2019m satisfied and pride and when it happens I feel like drawing is a sort of son, I feel a feeling of affection for the artwork. About old works if I think that they can have potential, I improve the chiaroscuro, shading, colors, adding background,etc.\n\nSometimes I don&#8217;t want to improve a work, leaving it as it is, even in its imperfections. As if it were a &#8220;photo&#8221; of the era in which it was created, even with its negative sides.\n<br><br>\n<center><a href=\"\thttps:\/\/mcartme.wixsite.com\/mcart\"><strong>Website<\/strong><\/a><\/center>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you tell us about your early experiences with art and what initially inspired you to start creating? My early art experiences started since my childhood, at elementary schools. I remember when I was five that I filled my notebooks with my drawings inspired by cartoons,anime, bizarre situations: I\u2019ve always find that a natural way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8831"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8846,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831\/revisions\/8846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}