“If you let yourself go without trying to seem unique, you really will be.”
BAO: What is your art? What do you want to communicate and transmit?
Marta: I am a graphic designer and illustrator, I mostly deal with digitally produced caricatures and I like to range across different fields: vector illustrations, logos, pixelart, comics, ink drawings and watercolours. What I want for my works is that they correspond to the desires of their users, it is different when I create graphics for myself, where there is no defined purpose. In these cases I dedicate myself to the emotion or memory of the moment, giving it a shape to make it material and concrete.
BAO: How did your passion begin?
Marta: My brother and my uncle are the most important influences that led me to cultivate this passion. Since I was a child I was inspired by their dedication to drawing and painting, I trained every day focusing mainly on faces and bodies. Art has always been a subject that I loved and which I mastered effortlessly, so much so that it convinced me to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Here, however, I did not find the path or the guide I expected. For this reason I enrolled in Architecture, leaving drawing in the drawer for a while, even if I occasionally began to create caricatures. After almost 8 years I still continue to do it, in love with the opportunity that this service of mine hides between the lines of requests; it allows me to know a thousand stories, a thousand faces, a thousand laughs, loves, transform them, analyze them and draw them.
I also illustrated the book “I love cellulite” by Martina Semenzato, an objective that represents a symbolic moment for me, in which I began to believe in my talent and in my career as an illustrator.
BAO: How did your creative process originate, what inspires you?
Marta: During gloomy days, when my cat and a soft blanket become my faithful work companions, I manage to find the right concentration. I need to carve out a little corner of calm from the frenzy of everyday life.
I often also find great inspiration from the commissions I receive, thanks to my empathetic character it is easy for me to understand what people want and I love collaborating together to build an idea.
BAO: What are the difficulties you encounter today in making your art known?
Marta: Although I really appreciate the world of social media, I always find a certain difficulty and shame in promoting myself. Between the inconstancy in posting and my work commitments, it is difficult to define a strategy for presenting my works. Furthermore, I often feel the pressure of having to create content that is always online and recognisable, but it is not always possible to pursue this path.
BAO: What relationship do you think authenticity has in artistic creation? How do you experience it in your creative process?
Marta: I was very anxious about searching for what made me different from others, every choice was often weighed down by this thought. Lately I have simply moved beyond this concern of mine. What I’m trying to achieve is the right balance between observation of the outside and observation of myself and my potential, thinking and asking myself this question: after all, what can be said to be truly authentic? Everything is a mix of influences, memories, connections and encounters. The less you think about it, the more your essence will emerge and mix with the rest. Each of us is a repository of knowledge and none of us store things in the same way, no one has the same hands and the same heart, so if you let yourself go without trying to seem unique, you truly will be.
