July 29, 2022

5 minutes with Giada Maestra!

1/ What is your creative path and what was the spark that led you to art and creation?

I have always been, albeit unconsciously, immersed in a creative environment since I was a child in the family. With my best friend at the time we kept a diary that we exchanged every Monday after school, where we wrote down everything that happened to us when we weren't together. The text was always accompanied by drawings. I also liked making mountains of booklets complete with covers, where I wrote short illustrated stories. To be honest, I've never paid too much attention to all this, basically all children draw. Later, after high school, I embarked on a course of study at the IUAV in Venice, which proved to be of fundamental importance for my professional growth. I still remember that during a life drawing lesson I thought for the first time that my works weren't so much to throw away, on the contrary! From there I started practicing and gaining more confidence with the materials, with the paper, with the figures and the proportions, without stopping. In a short time, drawing has gone from being a hobby, a sporadic thing, to a necessity that I could no longer do without.

2/ What is the medium that inspires you the most and why?

I have always preferred watercolor and pencil, I like the trace they leave, the speed of the gesture, how they behave and react when mixed together and on different surfaces.

3/ What are your influences and inspirations?

My biggest source of inspiration is everyday life, with its comical and non-comic sides, the details, the little things, to which we often don't pay too much attention. I have always had many influences, from fashion to design, from photography to the visual arts in general. There are many things that fascinate me and that contribute to my training and that are not necessarily related to drawing, as well as the artists I follow. Lisa Sorgini and Leanne Shapton are among my favorites at the moment.

4/ What is your creative process?

It depends on the type of work that is required of me. In general, my creative process always includes a reflection phase where I write and draw everything that comes to mind in order to generate ideas and keywords, followed by a research phase, black and white tests, final selection and color tests.

5/ Have you ever had experiences in an art gallery?

When I lived in Paris there was a brief moment in which I approached the world of galleries, but unfortunately it remained pending. Garance & Marion were the first to offer me this type of experience and I am immensely grateful!

6/ Did you already know the reproduction (screen printing, riso printing, pigment printing) and multiple? 

Printing techniques have always fascinated me, as well as the world of paper. I learned about it following personal research and experimentation during the illustration master's degree I attended at the University of the Arts London.

7/ Which artwork would you choose to accompany you throughout your life?

At the studio in Montparnasse, Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

8/ Which exhibition, artist or work of art moved you the most?

The Judith in Venice and La Gioconda in Paris. There was also another painting, still in the Louvre in Paris, whose name I foolishly didn't write down at the time: it was the representation of a bucolic landscape at sunset, with splendid golden colours, I would have stayed looking at it for hours.

9/ A place that inspires you?

A beautiful bookstore, especially if it is historic or independent.

10/ What is your favorite colour?

This question has always puzzled me since I was a child because
I have a lot of favorite colors! The ones that I use/represent me the most are antique pink and teal green, especially when combined together.

11/ Music that transports you?

Wash by Bon Iver.

12/ An essential book for your library?

Changing the flower water by Valérie Perrin.

13/ A film that marked you?

Loose Cannons by Ferzan Ozpetek.

14/ A childhood memory?

Eating fries and roast chicken with my dad after school, constantly scraping my knees.

15/ What is your mantra?

I'm not sure if I have one but I'm a big fan of less is more for everything.

16/ What is your typical day like?

Go out early on a sunny day to have a good take away coffee and go for a long walk alone. If I feel like listening to podcasts, otherwise nothing at all, I take the opportunity to look around. If I have time on my hands, I like to explore the city, see exhibitions or visit places that I have marked down by carrying a notebook and watercolors with me. It is also likely that he will end up in a bookstore and come out with some new reading.

17/ What is the role of Garance & Marion in the evolution of your career as an artist?

Garance & Marion have not only contributed to bringing my work to one of the cities dearest to me, but thanks to them I also have the opportunity to meet new local talents and realities, with whom to share experiences and future projects.

18/ What are your future projects?

There are many beautiful collaborations I've worked on this spring that will be published soon, but I'm also in a very reflective phase in which I prefer the present, making room for innovation and experimentation. I've been wishing I could get closer to the publishing world for a while now, so many design and stylistic choices are now projected in that direction.

Thanks Jade!