People like Bridges

People like Bridges
Made by stones paved long, long time ago
In which plants find tiny space for growing, always
(The composition’s melody)
Unnoticed actions enrich the structure while loving deeds fortify it
Artists at the service of the people
( the silence in between)
Lucky are those that carry inside themselves Nature
Full of misery are the others that became alien to the mother
(excluding themselves from life’s eternal dance)
Presidents try to destroy bridges but
Bridges cannot be destroyed
You can’t sever what our ancestors and family set at the beginning of life
And while the so-called chiefs despair in search of glory, hate and fear
Common human beings fight for their freedom
And still buy flowers and offer them to their beloved ones

Personal project consisting in around 20 illustrations,
made on different formats, from 20 x 30 to 70 x 100 cm
Coloured pastels on papers, 2022 – 2025

Estirpare – Uproot – Personal project

5 years after the creation of Roots,
after all this time while looking to be rooted,
how much of this became superfluous; how much of this is truly essential?

Most likely a very little
So here what I wish to uproot:
Blaming the others
Feeling talented or superior somehow
The ego and vanity which trick us by letting to see things with superficiality
Knowledge meant as the apex of knowing things
And finally the wrong idea that love is something for good
instead of an attitude to nurture day after day.

42 x 30 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2025

Radici – Roots

All of a sudden, he realised that wasn’t there just as a passerby but he was part of a bigger whole.
He was strictly indispensable to the world and its people
as well as them and the world was for him.

42 x 30 cm, coloured pastels on a smooth Fabriano4 paper, 2020

Il coraggio di Aurora
A story about a small star entering children’s dreams
in order to give them the courage to persist in life, while following their lights.

Book published by TS Edizioni
Story written by Chiara Patarino; art direction Roberta Russo.
For more infos
https://www.tsedizioni.it/

Beatles in Jazz – Christian De Cicco

Illustrated album cover designed for my brother Christian De Cicco (guitar)
and his music colleagues: Valentino Finoli (sax),
Simone Daclon (piano), Alex Orciari (double bass) & Roberto Paglieri (drum)

Available on
ep/1703793071https://www.deezer.com/search/CHRISTIAN%20DE%20CICCO
https://music.apple.com/it/album/beatles-in-jazz-ep/1703793071
For more infos, please check https://www.instagram.com/christiandecicco_music/

Lucciola ( Fireflies)

A young man ventures in the woods while looking for fireflies;
on another side of the forest,
also a woman is looking for these marvels of nature.
While they are following those bright trails eventually the find each other.
Book project consisting of a brief prologue and 21 illustrations.

Each image measures 43 x 30 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2021-22

Arts Itoya residency Japan
In summer 2023 I went to South Japan in a small city called Takeo Onsen
for taking part at one artist in residence program hosted by Arts Itoya association.
There I spent 7 weeks working on an ongoing project of mine called ‘People like Bridges’.

This project is looking at the importance of relation in our life and how these can leave a loving mark inside us, how these the can give meanings to our existence.

For more info about the residency, please check https://artsitoya.com/

Il Palazzo del Gatto – Sabinarti Art Residency

From June to September 2020, after the first national lockdown, I went to a small village found in the centre of Italy – not far from Rieti – in order to take part as a sole artist, to an art residency hosted by Associazione Sabinarti.
For the occasion, I had the pleasure to create this 7 images of different formats,
which became part of the series ‘life as a miracle’.

How beautiful to discover little villages, make acquaintance with their dwellers and mix with them.

Sizes: from 35 x 50 to 70 x 100 cm, images made on papers with coloured pastels, 2020

Agitu Ideo Gudeta

Do they still exist in this world people having very special virtues,
in other words, persons worth to be regarded as queens?

Thank you so much Agitu for having spread
and shared such abundance of beauty.

28 x 48 cm , coloured pastels on a smooth Fabriano4 paper, 2021

In Autumn: A Ferret Outside The Temple
At the beginning of autumn, upon returning to a long summer art residency in the centre of Italy,
I visited Monza Park where a beautiful small lake is found.
The Image was first drawn live and completed in studio afterwards.

While time passed, I found myself still trapped between a previous end of a story delusion
and the feeling of still having lots of love to share.

Coloured pastels on a smooth Fabriano4 paper, 64 x 44 cm, 2020

Tradition:modernity

While I used to live in the lovely Brighton town, I frequently rode by bike back and forward on the seaside cycleway. There there was a beautiful tree that due to the strong winds and the not caring of people leaving littering on the beach, was often found having plastic bags stuck among its branches. 
A kind fo new tradition

42 x 30 cm, coloured pastels and charcoal on paper, 2020

Soulhub magazine – issue 03

Soulhub magazine is a British magazine focusing on mindfulness and wellbeing
The illustration is base on the concept: “It is only when you stand still that feelings surface”
Thanks to the Carmen Rendell for the collaboration.

42 x 30 cm, coloured and soft pastels on paper, 2018

At last the Red Tree (…just before disappearing)
Following the creation of The Solitary Walker, here came the next image
21 x 21 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2019

‘The Solitary Walker’
In 2019 I have been to Perù for a volunteer project which last three weeks.
After that period, I travelled to Machu Pichu.
The site which is reachable by walking on the rail was as good as astonishing beautiful.
An immersion of vegetations and beams of light!
Upon returning to the UK, I have drawn this picture.
28 x 42 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2019

Hevrin Khalaf – the Goddess of Beauty
Hevrin Khalaf was a Kurdish politician who fought for defending and affirming the Kurdish minority’s cause; she was murdered in 2019 in Syria by agent affiliated to the Turkish government.
This is an homage to this just politician

41 x 24 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2018

The Timeless Navigator

We finds reason for living when we are in support for each other
50 x 35 cm, coloured pastels on paper, 2019

A selection of artworks made for foreign and italian editorial companies.

A selection of design works made with coloured pastels and acrylics for online and press projects.

As a flash of misty light
that left me dazed and astonished
this is how I came across Andrei Tarkovsky for the very first time.
From that truly alive moment
to the next one and the next one and the other,
each time going somewhere else which I have not been before
and each time opening a locked door.
The power of art, seen as an intimate journey,
is the one that allows yourself to travel inwardly
until you reach your true nature.
Mine is the one of a child in a world of meanings and colours and for this revelation I wish to pay homage to the russian film maker and artist Andrei Tarkovsky.

Sketches made between June/October 2018 in Brighton
while meeting people living on the streets,
those that are simply there to raise some money, those that they look
for help or those that they do not search for help any longer but still appreciate some company;
free kitchens offering a warm meal or places of gatherings now forgotten.
Some of these men are still found in town, others have been lucky
to get an accommodation or a sort of job.
A good lot has now disappeared from the streets of Brighton
and who knows where they moved next.
Many, especially those over a certain age, they used to have a decent life but because life takes unexpected directions, they ended up on the street.
Soon I will give more infos about this project and my current volunteer project with Just Life studio.

‘If you want the world to go forward we must hold hands,
we must mix with the so – called healthy with so – called sick’,
From A.Tarkovsky movie ‘Nostalgia’

Across the Free Land tells a story by using the images found on the flags
and coats of arms of countries around the world.
The adventure follows the journey of a central protagonist, whose appearance changes
as he visits different territories and encounters a diverse cast of characters.

The project reflects my view of the world as a unique whole that
should not be considered in terms of the division between states, dominions and other entities.

The almost silent book consists of 32 illustrated images each being painted by hand with Ecoline china inks,
on a 40x60cm 400gsm Fabriano Cartonato paper.
Printed in Italy as a limited edition book in 50 copies.