MANI VIVE, the travel and the destination

We have finally arrived where the horizon slowly widens, where the gaze opens up beyond the dense, dense trunks and the hairy foliage of the trees.

Where even the HANDS begin to have that shy confidence necessary to continue the journey with more courage and awareness.

It is time to use the watercolor-painted cards, this time not individually, but in groups, exchanging pieces, advising each other, letting ourselves be influenced by the work of the companions, kindly competing for that particularly successful strip or square, without knowing who it is. architect.

It's time to share.

It's here that we meet our Angel.

Metaphorically, He represents the spiritual guide and the vital energy to which one can trust without fear.

Artistically, the suggestion provoked by the face of the Angel is great and the charm of this symbolic figure moves the skills of each one, as if one cannot wait to complete the elaborate and look this new, precious friend in the eyes.

On the basis of the previously prepared color groups, linked to INFINITY, EARTH and WATER, pieces of colored paper are modeled by tearing and bi-dimensionally compose the face, hair and wings.

The right proportions of the parts, depth and light are pursued, to make a material, paper, which is already full of energy in itself, LIFE.

The third meeting ends with the creation of a real collage painting, a way of interpreting life: every single piece and every small step are part of a larger drawing, especially if we have someone who supports and protects us, or when we ourselves are sources and custodians of vitality.

POLES:

Use of watercolor papers

Method of tearing and collage

Use of masks

Finishing with the use of watercolor colored pencils

The last appointment sees the laboratory table immediately transform into this exuberant chaos of colors.

The goal is to tell our journey by entrusting it to the pages of the "Artist's Book".

The material prepared during the previous meetings, even the clippings of the works already done (the artist is a generous being, who does not throw away, but also gives new life to apparently unusable things), were made available to all the participants.

We therefore used various types of paper, folders painted in acrylic and watercolor, newspaper pages, and shaped the various elements with the tear-off technique or with scissors.

The first three pages of the book dealt with the stages covered: the departure in the woods, the passage through the clearing, the meeting with the Angel.

The last page, on the other hand, has been deliberately left to the free interpretation of each one ... a very personal ending, the representation of the goal to aim for, the ideal place where we would like to arrive to feel serene and at peace with ourselves.

To complete the book, we have inserted four poems between the pages, each one representing the emotions and meaning of each passage.

We want to share them with you, hoping they can... "pinch" some soul string...

Itinerant Wood, Tiziano Fratus

There is a wood that lives inside me, a sung and interminable silence, streams that gush and animals that run. I don't know who I am, the voice repeats, I don't know who I am. But I feel that there is this world of fine texture that inhabits a place without borders, here, in my chest, in my heart, in my mind. It populates the hours of sleep and nourishes the hours of thought. This is why when I return to the royal forest I feel like screaming, to love like a mother who does not distinguish a child from another child. I am a wood that walks, a wood that roots and uproots.

Ithaca, Konstantinos Kavafis

When you set out for Ithaca

you must wish the road is long,

fertile in adventures and experiences.

The Lestrigons and the Cyclops

or the fury of Neptune do not fear,

this will not be the kind of encounters

if the thought remains high and a feeling

steadfast guide your spirit and your body.

In Cyclops and Lestrigons, certainly not,

nor will you run into angry Poseidon

if you don't carry them inside

if the soul does not put them against you. 

You must wish the road is long.

May there be many summer mornings

when in the ports - finally and with what joy -

you will touch the ground for the first time:

in Phoenician emporiums he lingers and buys

mother-of-pearl coral, ebony and amber

all fine merchandise, even perfumes

penetrating of all sorts;

as many intoxicating scents as you can,

goes to many Egyptian cities

learn a lot of things from the learned

You must always have Ithaca in mind -

to reach it is constant thought.

Above all, don't rush the trip;

make it last for a long time, for years, and that as an old man

set foot on the island, you, rich man

of the treasures accumulated on the street

without expecting riches from Ithaca.

Ithaca gave you the beautiful journey,

without her you would never have gotten away

traveling: what else do you expect? 

And if you find it poor, Ithaca will not have disappointed you for this.

Made wise now, with all your experience on him

you will already have understood what Ithaca wants to mean.

I have an Angel, Raffaele Carrieri

I have an angel looking at me over my weary shoulder, an angel without a scale doesn't weigh my day. An angel who does not condemn me when the rose wounds, when I flee hope, when I beat my forehead on the stone of disillusionment, when I deceive death with paper swallows. I have an angel who saves me behind my tired shoulder.