"The pandemic sucked us all into a vortex of inescapable uncertainty. We grappled with a sinister unknown, a phantom behemoth that threatened all that we hold dear and augured a premature encounter with our Maker. Caught up in this miasma which hung as a pall over our existence, my life had to change and embrace an unreal reality. The first lockdown reduced most of us to ranting existentialists as we locked horns with the tedium of cloistered entrapment. Many discovered the baker in them. Others had been poets all along without their knowing. Some took to the simple delight of growing vegetables on their front porches. Any distraction really to avoid contemplating the unfathomable.
Gli alberi blu – 40cm x 40cm
However, the pandemic also afforded most of us the time we never had. Alfonse de Lamartine in his 'Le Lac' had rhetorically asked if in this ocean we call time we could cast anchor, if only, for just a single day. It appeared we now could cast anchor for days on end in what had become a clockless existence. The hackneyed Celtic saying that when God created time, He made plenty of it - scoffed at by those who carry their cumbersome agendas with back-to-back meetings as a badge of distinction - never rang any truer. Time stood still. I could breathe. With time on my hands, the creative juices which had long been simmering in a state of comatose brumation, started spilling and overflowing heralded by an artistic spring.
Looking back, I now realise that the pandemic shaped my career in no small measure. Never was I as prolific as I have been in the past three years. In a world thrust into a state of foreboding, my palette burned with the desire to exude positivity and the possibility of new beginnings. After all, I have always been one to light a candle rather than complain about the darkness.
The pandemic also brought us face to face with our transience. The numerous walks in the countryside juxtaposed our mortality against the infiniteness and self-perpetuating nature of trees that dwarf us into insignificance. The undiluted beauty of the Maltese countryside has always nourished my imagination. Trees are a recurring motif in my art; they waltz in the background and sway in the foreground. They are a pulsating fixation. A pantheistic fetish of the mind. Inescapable. Sensuous. Beautifully haunting. Quasi-ethereal. In fact, the last solo I had in March 2021, entitled 'Revisited Memories', expressed a desire to create a metaphorical visual language about environmental awareness.
Gli alberi rossi – 40cm x 40cm
My paintings are as much a poignant pastoral elegy as they are an urgent wakeup call to the money-grabbing few as well as to the complacent many to rethink their priorities before it is too late, that is, before trees become fossilised exhibition pieces in museums as envisaged by Joni Mitchell in Big Yellow Taxi. In a sense, my trees sprawled on a canvas are very akin to a foetus bobbing up and down in laboratory formaldehyde. Lifeless. Unable to be caressed by the gentle breeze. They do not belong there. Future generations might look at the leafy aliens gracing my work and curse their fathers while sniffing at their inhalers.
Besides the solo I had last year, I have had various opportunities to take part in different collective exhibitions too. I was also invited to take part in a collective exhibition in Milan last June. I was then approached by one of the leading galleries in via Margutta in Rome, where I will now be having my next solo. This solo will be entitled 'Le Radici'. Why 'Le Radici' (Roots)? The reason is twofold. Well, part because all these works represent landscapes depicting trees, but also because I have Italian roots as well. I was born in Malta but I have Italian origins. This is my first solo abroad and for me it means a lot, especially the fact that it is taking place in Rome. I visit Rome twice or three times a year. It is the city in which I have lived and studied. I am drawn to it very much like a moth is drawn to a light bulb. I consider this exhibition a special one as I will be showcasing my creations within this inspiring city which I have come to call my second home.
Paesaggio Urbano Di Autunno
I work mainly from my studio, which gives me the right environment and opportunity to interpret the scene from my own perspective, giving it its unique interpretation without being conditioned by light and atmosphere. My medium of choice is acrylics. When it comes to colours, I mainly use the prime colours (red, blue, yellow, white and black). I don't like to buy ready mixed colours. If I want a purple colour, I mix it myself using reds and blues. It is a way of personalising my palette."
My upcoming solo in Rome will be taking place between the 11th and the 24th of April, curated by Tiziano M. Todi, at Galleria Vittoria, via Margutta 103.
This series is conceived and edited by Marie Benoît who contributes her own Diary occasionally. [email protected]