Freedom and happiness, the true value of works of art
I didn’t know Serena until a few days ago, when I had the chance to interview her as an artist and not as a middle school teacher of physical education. Although art is not her work, it has always accompanied her throughout her life, albeit at different times. “I have been drawing since I was a child … at the age of 14 I tried to paint on canvas with acrylic paints”, Serena says. Then life took her elsewhere, but, in of the most beautiful moments in a woman’s life, when she was expecting a baby, she started painting once again only for a short time. Finally, in 2002, she resumed painting, but this time she didn’t give it up, and decided to enrol for a few years at the G.A.S. art school founded by De Tuoni in Spresiano, the town where she lives, to improve her technique. She started depicting landscapes, portraits, animals and informal abstract shapes. When I asked her what she wanted to communicate with her art, Serena replied: “I have always tried to convey joy, I would like to help people find freedom and happiness, even in these hard times. I would like to lead them, through my works, to the rediscovery of dreams, nature, serenity, a fairy world”, like some of her most recent works entitled “Bolle di sapone” (“Soap bubbles”) and “Aurore boreali” (“Northern lights”). The artist is constantly searching for new techniques and says: “We should give up vanity and do something for charity. We should not adapt out art to market demands, even if this may be counter-productive.” Therefore, Serena’s style is not defined, and neither are her techniques and materials, including canvases, brushes and clay sculptures, and who knows what will come in the near future!
