the interview
From photography to painting
The World of "Gian Domenico"
His is a story of middle-aged changes: up to the age of 38, the Marchigiano artist Gian Domenico Negroni, worked in his own photographic studio as a professional photographer in the town of Castelraimondo (MC), deciding after a few years to close his business , at a particularly difficult and no longer profitable time. His artistic career began at age 38, following this decision. As he explained to us, "the photography, the workshop and all that digital world were suffocating my poetry and my desire to continue exploring".
We met him in Ancona, in a restaurant, where he currently exhibits...
How did you get into pictorial art?
When at the end of 2002 I decided to close the photo studio, I realized that I was entering a very long tunnel. The shop had left me some problems that I absolutely had to solve. After a few days I went into a small company in the high Macerata area to ask for work. The owner of the company had been a client of mine, to whom I made photos for his catalogs. I was lucky and after a week I went to work. That tunnel was getting darker and darker. That's where I decided to start painting. My first work is titled "Senza Uscita".
Where are you now and what are you working on?
At the moment I am in Ancona with a small exhibition, in a typical restaurant called "La Mezza Luna". I often happened to exhibit in such places; restaurants, pubs. Here people observe more. Or better, there is a greater passage of people in places like these. It is not for controversy but, often, in traditional exhibitions, that is in exhibition halls or specially created spaces, there is the desert. The crowd is only there for inaugurations ... when there is food. As for new jobs, I am in a phase of positive change. I am abandoning the informal abstract to create works, which are always abstract, but which have figurative features.
Can you tell us a little about the design of your works? What are the most important aspects of the various stages of the process?
Many of my paintings are born from photographs. The process begins precisely photographing: I am taking a huge amount of photographs, urban landscapes and wild nature. Back home I upload the photos to the computer, open them and observe them. I usually never use only one image, but I use different photographs or parts of them. I always try to create already from photography, an image very close to painting, that is to the final work that my mind elaborates, looking for new creative possibilities.
Your canvases reflect a parallel world made of dream, is it right?
Yes. My works are my dreams, but also the nightmares, sometimes memories .. I am convinced that to paint you must absolutely dissociate yourself from reality.
I noticed that colors are a very important factor in your works. What are your sources of inspiration for color combinations?
Strong colors have always fascinated me. The strong colors are life, energy. I've always been attracted by the art of great colorists, like Kandinsky who believed he could tell everything through color. In my work, in particular, the colors of the sea, blue and turquoise dominate: they are important to me, with the gold of the sand and the sun setting over it.
Do you generally plan your work, or do you simply let yourself be inspired by the image you are creating?
My work is absolutely intuitive and unplanned. When I start I have no idea what is going to happen: it seems that the images are created by themselves and often I find myself surprised by the result. It's strange, only when I finish a work and give it a name, I realize its emotional significance.
Based on your experience, what were the moments when you struggled with your inner "I" or did you have difficulty expressing a concept? How did you get over this obstacle?
I believe that every artist lives of "periods of drought", of lack of creativity. The idea is not a struggle, but it is seeing art as a game. Creativity needs to be nurtured: in my case, inspiration comes from "inner" journeys and days of filming.
When an art form is told by the artist who creates it, it stops being a simple label and becomes magic. What makes the substance of dreams real.
The current exhibition of the artist Gianduz will remain open throughout the month of October. Not to be missed.
Eleonora Monti