Pictures from Events

April 6, 2006

Exhibition, Dante Alighieri Society, Cambridge, MA

Artistic Statement

Although ceramics have been part of the Italian landscape for thousands of years, the type of ceramic and majolica pieces that I create are not easy to discover and, in fact, are very rare. The ceramics that are produced and exported to the United States and that are found in many shops are painted in large workshops, some by individual artists and others by several artists painting only part of a piece. The artists know the traditional, stylized patterns very well and spend their days painting the same motifs. The painters have a lot of experience and are very fast because they have painted these themes for years. Variety is achieved not by the painters, but because the motifs are specific to the cities in which they are produced. As a result, although they are done by hand, they are basically the same and vary little.

I use the techniques evolved by the old masters, that is, I paint with pigments, painstakingly dipping the brush into water. The result is a watercolor painting on a plate or other piece. This technique is non-existent in the United States, where liquid paints are used, and rare in Italy. The technique is difficult because the colors are physically very delicate when I paint and the piece must be protected before I fire it. That is, dust or a slight, inadvertent, touch will smear the paint because the color has not been “fixed” (fixing can only be achieved by firing it). The smear might be too slight to be seen before the piece is fired the first time. Instead it will become apparent when the glaze is applied and the final firing has been completed. This means that there is a higher rate of loss for my pieces because, in addition to the problem of a piece cracking when I fire it, I must add the risk of a smear occurring on the final product. This development either reduces the worth of a piece or destroys its value altogether. These factors probably explain why many artists no longer use the technique.

While this technique used by the old masters is technically very difficult, it has great rewards in the final pieces. It allows me to obtain a range of colors that is impossible to achieve with the standard colors of the liquid paints. That is why you will see many delicate and unusual shades of color in my work.