Our interview series continues this week with artist, Daniele de Lorenzo. Enjoy the Q & A along with a selection of Daniele’s work.

Where are you located?

I come from Milan (Italy), but I have been living in Assisi for the last 7 years.

What is your educational background?

I began drawing as a child, self-taught, and for much of my adolescence I did portrait work. Then I studied at the Art Institute of Monza, near Milano.

Which artists, past or present, influence your work most?

The artists who influenced my work at the end of the 80’s and beginning of the 90’s were Italo Calvino and Lucio Battisti. The former is a writer who always fascinated me by the methodology he used. In one period of his life he wrote a series of stories and novels using a combinatory method. In 1985, he was invited to hold 6 lessons at the University of Harvard, but due to his death a posthumous book was produced with the title “American Lessons – six proposals for the next millennium”. In the States perhaps it is translated as “Six Memos for the Next Millennium”. In this book he describes the values that he wishes literature to incarnate in the next millennium, such a Lightness, Speed, Exactness, Visibility, Multiplicity, Coherence. I took from this the basic ideas from which I created my personal method of work.
 The second artist is Lucio Battisti, the Italian singer-songwriter, who I imagine isn’t so well-known to you as he didn’t have an international impact, probably mostly due to his Italian lyrics. However, in an interview in 1997, David Bowie defined him, together with Lou Reed, as the best singer in the world. In his last artistic period Battisti created 5 albums of experimental music which had little commercial success even in Italy.

Italo Calvino and Lucio Battisti are artists who taught me to focus on the “way” of working and not only on “what” to do, to comprehend the need to have a method, which is more than a tool, a technique or a style. A method is able to incarnate the meaning of your research through its working modalities.

I am very interested in the research of artists such as Brian Eno, Gerhard Richter, Tim Hecker, Jon Hassell and Robert Fripp. There is also an Australian guy, Sam Songailo, who I discovered by accident and whose work I like a lot.

When did you become serious about your work?

In 1992, when I began systematically writing notes about my artistic research, which I then continued to do for about 20 years.

Have you had any breaks in your career that have been a catalyst?

I had a break from 2001 to 2013, a period in which I suspended my artistic activity to dedicate myself to other work. Part of my research was at a dead-end, I remember that I even threw away some of my paintings, then I decided to research in other directions. It was a crucial incubation-period and allowed me to return to my art a few years ago with a new awareness.

What kind of creative patterns, routines or rituals do you have?

The ritual that I almost always use is to enter into a state, and I do this through music, sometimes I use music of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, or Tim Hecker. When I feel that I have reached the state I can start working.

What is your creative process?

After entering into a state that I call “syntonization” I can begin. I am currently working with the square format. I divide it into 108 units per side, in this way creating a finite number of elements: 11,664. Using computer software created by a programmer friend of mine, I put into motion a process within the square in which numerical sequences flow in the space, creating structures and forms. The process, therefore, begins from a programmed calculation using numbers and simple algorithmic calculations. In this phase I am part spectator of the creation, like anyone else. Then I paint on canvas the structures that have been created, and in this phase I alter the sense of order and linearity using random actions such as passing a spatula over the newly-painted surface.

I also produce videos from the software which I add sounds and noises to, creating installations. It is a rather articulated process through which I work within opposing but also complementary worlds, such as chaos and calculation, the unlimited and limited.

Triptych, 2017. from Daniele de Lorenzo on Vimeo.

What do you believe is a key element in creating a good composition?

Mathematics. There are relationships that are objective between form, space, empty and full spaces. Artists have access to these laws without using the “instruction manual”. It is not necessary because they feel it. It is connected to a dimension that is not purely subjective. Indeed, Taste is something objective and not subjective.

How has your style and technique evolved over time?

I began working as a portrait artist, doing life drawing, then when I was very young I was often commissioned portraits from photographs. Then I used tempera and acrylic, but what really excited me, in the 90’s, was xerography. I manipulated images using photocopiers, the first modern technological means that I had available to me, and then I added colour to them. Then I moved to computer work, elaborating the images with photo-retouch software. Today, I use acrylic on canvas and computers to create not only images by also videos.

What are you trying to communicate with your work?

That the artist is just a means, and that it is necessary to enter into this dimension in order to do something useful not only for oneself, but also for the world. I don’t find it useful to project one’s inner impulses onto canvas or onto any other support that is used. So, I’m trying not to pour out myself in my work but to by-pass myself. This requires a certain level of self-regulation, discipline and the awareness that we are not as interesting and original as we imagined we were. We are extraordinary, not in our small-mindedness, but rather in searching for something Else, for example, for the laws that govern ourselves and the reality in which we live and above all that mysterious realm that is everywhere. We must resist our need to be recognized and adulated, which is really something worth very little. This doesn’t mean we can’t wish for success and that I don’t get pleasure from exhibiting my work and from communicating with people. On the contrary, it is even more interesting. Our egocentrism and our vanity can only be justified for a time and only if they bring with them something else, and here I’m not referring once again to ourselves.

In my work there is the idea of the unlimited; a continual recombination of a series of elements, which are always the same, that create an infinite variety of forms for which an entire lifetime wouldn’t be sufficient for me to create all of the possible paintings. I work on a borderline between calculation and chance, mathematics and the mystical world.

What role do you believe art plays in society?

This is a difficult question. Let’s start with the opposite question, “what role does Art not play in society.” I think that Art is not the simple dimension of transferring an idea, of communicating knowledge and above all of simply catalyzing the pain and suffering of the society we live in.  Therefore, an artist is not simply someone who provokes and is anti-conformist. It is necessary for the artist to shift their centre of gravity from the need for confirmation and recognition to service of the True, as I mentioned before.

In my opinion, Art, the true kind of Art is a sort of bridge between different dimensions with the aim of showing to the world the Principles that can be generative for those who use them. I don’t want to sound too philosophical, for me it’s actually a very practical question. If I cannot nourish myself from Art at a level that makes me generate a new possibility to define myself and the world, I cannot act in the world in a new way and therefore I cannot be useful to society.

How has the internet influenced the way you market yourself?

Being able to reach anyone directly through their smartphone was something unthinkable until a few years ago. On the one hand this facilitates things, and on the other it requires us to fully understand the language of the different social media in order to communicate effectively through them. Today, I’m working on a series of videos as a way of marketing my work, but everything changes so quickly.

In the age of internet, do you think galleries are still relevant to artists?

Internet has revolutionized many things including the way of marketing art. Internet gives the opportunity to everyone to express themselves. This hyper-connection hasn’t produced the world we hoped for; it has become worse and not better. Andy Warhol said that one day everyone would have 15 minutes of fame. Today, we have arrived at the situation where we have it 24 hours a day, but in this way everything is flat, there is lots of noise, too much noise. This doesn’t mean we should demonize internet, but use it well as a vehicle for the better.
 Galleries today no longer carry out the role they did in the past. And yet they have a fundamental role to give value to artistic work — distinguishing it from amateur work. Today, however, I think that business and the art market have partly deformed their function. Many galleries have become shops because their artistic product has just become merchandise.

Galleries should return to searching for Art, to being a vehicle for Art, exploring in the world. Like many other artists I am constantly invaded by requests to participate in art competitions, where in many cases it is just a way of making money and offering a poor location.

Today, if we use internet well we can also sell by-passing the galleries, and in some ways I find this very interesting. On the other hand I would also like galleries to be able to become, once again, places where competency acts as a filter in order to present quality and innovation within their walls. Furthermore, the artistic dimension must also be experienced by spectators immersing themselves entirely in a place that allows the meeting and the relationship, also the physical relationship, to take place.

Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?

I haven’t studied music and I would certainly like to very much seeing as it is a form of language that I use a lot, despite not knowing it, as a form of inspiration. Indeed, many of the artists that have influenced me, and that I love, are musicians. Since I was a young child it came naturally to me to “see” music, it’s structure and rhythm. It is as though I see the musical modularity translated into forms.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as it relates to your work?

Someone told me that in order to go forwards it was necessary to go backwards. This was not only true, but also crucial for my work. I “went back” to painting, to getting my hands dirty, to using “old” modalities. However, by using old methods that I had seemingly already gone beyond in my artistic path with a new awareness it made it possible to redefine everything in a new way.

Do you have any upcoming shows or workshops?

I am currently working on two projects, one titled Square and the other is an exhibition in a music school… perhaps chance doesn’t exist, I always find myself in the musical world…

I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to Daniele for generously sharing his thoughts and perspective with us. To see more of Daniele’s work or follow his latest, visit his website or connect on social media:

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Our interview series continues this week with artist, Marcy Baker. Enjoy the Q & A along with a selection of Marcy’s work.

Where are you located?

I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon for 16 years.

How do you think your upbringing played a role in developing your creative point of view?

I grew up in a small town in the Finger Lakes region of central New York State. The intimate landscape and warm, earthy color palette of those surroundings certainly played a role in shaping my aesthetic sensibility.

When did you become serious about your work?

Shortly after moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1991 I was introduced to monotype printmaking and knew I’d found my creative focus. It was an ideal starting point, and Santa Fe was a vibrant environment for a young artist. While in New Mexico my work progressed from printmaking to include mixed media collage, and not long before moving to Oregon I began painting in acrylic.

For those of us who are uninitiated, will you please provide a brief explanation of monotyping?

A monotype is a single print created by applying ink to a smooth plate surface and transferring the image to paper with a press. I’ve taught the process for twelve years; it’s rewarding to teach because it is both experimental and accessible, and the results are fairly immediate.

What are you working on right now?

I am continuing with a series of paintings inspired by trees in my southeast Portland neighborhood, particularly the structure of trees as they lose their leaves.

What kind of creative patterns, routines or rituals do you have?

A favorite ritual is walking through the neighborhood collecting leaves and pods and bringing them back to the studio for inspiration.

What work do you most enjoying doing?

I most enjoy being able to move back and forth between painting and printmaking and allowing the conversation between those processes to feed my technique.

What most often inspires your creativity?

It would have to be the change of seasons — I love the Pacific Northwest for such distinct and refreshing changes. I enjoy them all, though autumn has been my favorite season since childhood in New York.

What is your creative process?

My process begins with observing seasonal changes in my surroundings, including color palette and cycles of decay and renewal. I mentioned gathering pods and leaves — these are inspiration for the drawings that are used to create stencils, printing blocks and relief plates, which are the tools I use to build layers of paint and ink. I create collage papers through hand printing and acrylic glazing techniques, as well as utilizing repurposed papers such as sewing patterns, sheet music and maps. For me, collage is a process of uncovering unexpected relationships and exploring tension through play with pattern, line and color. I tend to work in series because I like how the dialog that develops between the pieces keeps my process moving forward.

What do you believe is a key element in creating a good composition?

Balance is definitely an important one. Balance between areas of movement and areas for the eye to rest, balance between control and unpredictability.

Are you experimenting with anything new at the moment?

Recently, I’ve wanted to work larger with monotype than my press will accommodate. So, I started printing directly on large sheets of paper, rather than creating the image on a plate and transferring to paper with the press. This has been freeing because there is little risk, and as a result I tend to push the colors and layering to see what happens. The hand printed papers are adhered to wood panel and additional collage elements are added.

What are you trying to communicate with your work?

I hope to convey a sense of how I feel about my surroundings, ideally with an emotional response from the viewer.

What role do you believe art plays in society?

Art is a place of entry; a way to begin a conversation.

How has the internet influenced the way you market yourself?

The internet has put me in control of marketing my own work, and of course with that comes the responsibility of getting it done. I appreciate marketing as another creative outlet. I think of my website as an online portfolio and enjoy being in control of how my artwork is presented. When searching for a template, I knew right away when I saw Minimal that it was what I’d been looking for — the clean presentation reflects something integral to my work. I also have a Facebook studio page and that’s been an effective tool for spreading the word about workshops and exhibitions, as well as for gathering feedback on new work.

How did you decide how to price your work/services?

I was fortunate to have access to marketing workshops in Santa Fe once I was ready to sell my artwork. I was taught to keep my pricing consistent with artists working in a similar style, showing at similar venues and at the same place in their career. I use a formula based on size for a starting point and then do my research to confirm I’m in line with other artists’ pricing.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as it relates to your work?

My early monotypes tended to be repeat pattern oriented, very colorful and without much contrast or variation in scale. At some point an acquaintance casually suggested I might tear the elements apart and rearrange them, and her advice planted a seed.

Do you have any upcoming shows or workshops?

Next summer I will offer a watercolor monotype workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast. The process feels familiar in that it’s monotype, and unfamiliar in that I have always used oil based ink in my own printmaking. I’ve been experimenting with watercolor and am struck by how working with new materials can lead us to explore imagery in new ways. I’m excited about the possibilities.

To see more of Marcy’s work or follow her latest, visit her website or connect on social media:

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Our interview series continues this week with artist, Darren Menezes. Enjoy the Q & A along with a selection of Darren’s work.

Where are you located?

I’m located in Brighton on the South Coast of England. It’s now a City but I still think of it as a town. It’s a hub for creatives of all types. It’s known as the Silicon beach of the UK.

What is your educational background?

I didn’t complete my formal education (creativity wasn’t encouraged). My School was engineered towards white collar work due it’s close proximity to London (this was the mid 80s). So, I left school at 16 with minimal qualifications and drifted through the next 10 years with casual work. In my early 30s I enrolled into college studying illustration, journaling and mural painting.

How do you think your upbringing played a role in developing your creative point of view?

My parents allowed me a lot of freedom growing up, creatively speaking, to explore my immediate environment, unaccompanied for the most part. Nature was my favourite teacher then, nourished by living next to a forest.

Parallel to this my grandparents worked in London so there were lots of opportunities for me to freely wander around the city, in its own way another kind of forest/jungle to young eyes. To this day this is why architecture features heavily in my work.

I like to give a nod to nature when appropriate, with skies and trees, sometimes adorning my architectural drawings.

Which artists, past or present, influence your work most?

The artists that most influence my work tend to change, as I change, but there are two that have stayed with me. First, Eric Ravilious an early 20th Century English artist who painted in the area I live in. His watercolour illustrations of the landscape around Sussex never cease to amaze me.

My other big influence is the American artist Andrew Wyeth; all his working life he basically just painted in the area that he lived in (Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania). I feel I know his part of America through his paintings even though I have never been there.

When did you become serious about your work?

About 2 years ago, with a redundancy package I embarked on building myself a web presence and involving myself in projects related to the arts.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I am working as a Mentor for 2 learning disabled artists in Brighton. Over the summer we have been working hard on setting up their first exhibition, which has been a big success and a great experience for me, as I have been pushed into directions I don’t normally go.

Can you please describe what your creative process is like?

I like to work in silence (no music), at least to begin with, when I’m trying to get my initial ideas and sketches onto paper. When I’m satisfied with the groundwork, it’s an espresso and away we go!

Executing the final details of a painting or illustration gives me the most pleasure; by that point in the painting I’m totally relaxed and absorbed. Ambient sound by then is no longer a distraction.

Seeing other people painting and drawing totally inspires me. Long walks in nature inspire me, spring and autumn being my favourite seasons to get the creative juices flowing.

Over time I have moved away from painting with vibrant colours as I feel the mood I’m trying to convey is best expressed in tones with hints of colour. I love the quality of ink and watercolour; this is the medium I’m most happy with.

Balancing the light and shadow are key elements for me in composition, too much of either and it loses its punch.

The Japanese pointed bamboo brushes are a favourite of mine. They are very versatile all around, especially with watercolour.

Can you elaborate on your philosophy as it relates to being creative?

For me creating is a temporal escape from a pressured world. In the midst of doing something creative time disappears along with any negative feeling. Painting connects you to your core and you try to hold onto that as long as you can until inevitably the day to day things dilute it. But this is fine as you are only as good as your last painting and new ideas only begin flowing again once you move on from your last piece of work. It’s also great for keeping you mentally healthy, as with any creative pursuit (even just tending a vegetable patch). Viewing art rather than a facsimile has the same effect — you’re viewing a physical imprint— a feeling; sometimes from long ago. It’s timeless.

In the age of internet, do you think galleries are still relevant to artists?

Galleries have their place as there’s no comparison to seeing the real thing. It’s visceral. Walking around it, standing back from it, side on to it. Smelling it, clearly seeing the brushstrokes, the overheard conversations and so on. None of this the internet can do as efficiently.

What business advice do you have for young and aspiring creative professionals?

Don’t wait, just do it! For money, not for money and keep sketchbooks. Talent alone isn’t enough to help you be magically ‘discovered.’ You’ve got to be in the marketplace, on and offline. It’s mysterious how things always work out with persistence to a craft.

Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?

Printing, linocuts and silk screen printing are mediums I would love to try. I feel they would really suit my style of work.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as it relates to your work?

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Your mistakes make you great and breakthroughs happen because of them!

To see more of Darren’s work or follow his latest, visit his website or connect on social media:

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Our interview series launches this week with photographer, Thomas Thorstensson. Enjoy the Q & A along with a small selection of Thomas’s work.

Where are you located?

I’m located in London, where I’ve lived for over ten years now. I’m originally from Tanzania and Sweden.

What are you working on right now?

At the moment my ambition is to finish a modest photography book based on my documentation of the Alfama district in Lisbon. I’m planning to start a workshop in southern Europe that will run over a weekend every other month, and doing some work on that, but since my day job is still that of a Freelancing web developer, it is a slow process. I’m also doing some research for future projects during 2018.

What is your creative process?

I am mainly focused on feeling relaxed when I take photos. It is important to me that I am not too aware of the camera or lens or technique, but more aware of the people around me. I also try to stay focused on my own perception, and to raise it qualitatively, either by finding people that communicate some story, or by finding situations that do the same. These stories can be good, bad, sad, alienating, or whatever they may be — but there must be some content that speaks to me. And, absolutely, I must never hide from the people I photograph.

Other than that it is purely technical process and down to post processing, which I do in Lightroom and Silver Efex (or Color Efex), based on the settings I have.

How has your style and technique evolved over time?

When I started doing Photography five years ago, I became quite obsessed with composition; Bresson therefore became an obvious source of inspiration since in his work you can often find compositional ideas such as gestalt, rhythm, triangles, dynamic tension, leading lines, the golden measure, and so on. (But he was also a great documentary photographer.)

Since then I think I found a more natural language — in relation to myself — in the work of for example Robert Frank, Anders Petersen, and Vivian Maier, to mention a few: an approach to photography (and people) where people are less placed within a frame, if you so will. I love Robert Frank’s imperfect compositions, his insistence on being just about anywhere to tell the story he sees.

I would like to strike some medium between a compositional and a humanist / documentary focused kind of photography.

Why did you choose your medium and what do you wish you knew about it before you got started?

I can honestly say that Photography chose me, not the other way around. I still don’t know how that came about; I just started shooting one day, and then from there on it continued. I’ve been a searching humanist for most of my life. I have a postgraduate degree in philosophy, and I read a lot, especially novels. I also tried my hand at writing several years ago.

The important thing that happened when I took up photography is that I felt, unlike in any other creative discipline, that I had found my voice; the discipline of photography instantly resounded deep within me and I knew there was no going back.

As for the second part of the question: the question never occurred to my mind, sorry.

Are you experimenting with anything new at the moment?

Not at the moment. I tend to go in circles and come back to the same topics, and I don’t know that something is new until I see it. But let me say that ethos, history, and social conflict interest me a lot as a human being and I would like to reflect these aspects of human life more than I have in my work so far during 2018. I am sketching on a few ideas and locations…

What are you trying to communicate with your work?

In any creative discipline you have to insist on your own voice. As you get older I think this gets easier: because the wealth of past experiences will have formed your personality, for better or worse. As a result you will become more immutable in your beliefs, more stubborn — and hopefully also more respectful of other people. Respect is very important in my work.

How has the internet influenced the way you market yourself?

The Internet can be a great tool for marketing oneself. But my view of Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr and so on is quite cynical: I use these services, but I don’t let them consume me. With that I mean: I spend very little time online on social media. I use various tools to market myself on social media sites so that I can spend my time elsewhere.

I think the great part of the internet for photographers is not the big social media giants, but rather the creative communities and possibilities opening up around online photo blogs, online book publishers, online travel funding for photographic projects, online print sales, and so on. The other day I visited the web page of daylightbooks.org, a non-profit publisher of photography books. Very inspirational!

In the age of internet, do you think galleries are still relevant to artists?

Of course they are. I had an exhibition last year with a photography friend of mine in London. There is nothing like sitting in a gallery and meeting people who come to see your work. You end up having conversations about photography you could not foresee. One guy that came to visit my exhibition showed me his own photography from Mumbai, his home town. It was very inspirational.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as it relates to your work?

“A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Do you have any upcoming shows or workshops?

Not at the moment. I have kept a medium to slow pace during 2017, and enjoyed that. I try to not keep a London pace in London. But as outlined vaguely above, I will be launching some workshops in Southern Europe in 2018. Then we have the book about Alfama. And obviously the new ideas I have for 2018 … I look forward to the challenge!

To see more of Thomas’s work or follow his latest, visit his website or connect on social media:

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