The fusion of contemporary vision and eternal aspirations – By K. Basher
Since she was a child she loved to escape to her room where she created her own fantastic and colorful world through drawing. Today Simona Occhiuzzi is an established artist. The Neapolitan artist exhibits successfully in Italy and abroad, often collaborates with Officine San Carlo, helping with the scenography for theater shows, with a Master in Art Therapy, she is focused on doing workshops in schools across the country and also runs her own atelier. However, whenever she can, she still loves to get a spot to a quiet place where she can create.
Simona is in her element when she doesn’t have a set of rules to guide her. She has developed her own techniques, focusing on acrylic and enamel on canvas to bring her works to life. There are times when she is more than willing to experiment creatively, something only she can replicate. With her educational background and experience in advertising, it may come as a shock to some of Simona’s new fans to know that she is able to provide illustrative work alongside her paintings. Portraits and still lifes are things she continues to practice, but her main goal is to create something that is completely her own.
In Art Therapy, as a teacher, her goal is to provide children with the tools to create their own masterpieces, similar to how she was able to access a paintbrush and pad when she was at her aunt’s house. Her aunt was a painter, and, whenever little Simona would visit, she would let her into her painting room. She would sit with her aunt for hours, both of them surrounded by the vibrant colors of landscapes, city streets, and abstract art. Even if her aunt would leave the room to do something else, she would stay and paint whatever came into her head, filling page after page of painting pads.
She would return from her travels with dried paint on her hands and the smell of paint permeating her clothes. It was a smell she grew to love. Later Simona learned the basic techniques from the accomplished artist Valeria Corvino.
As she grew older, she continued to create art, working with traditional techniques in both pencil and paint. Her passion led her to attend the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Italy. She was given all the tools to pursue different art forms that she had never thought of trying. There, as a student of Riccardo Mannelli, she improved her traditional illustration technique.
When she returned home, she began to use her new skills as an illustrator to get jobs at publishing houses and advertising agencies. She was praised for her work and the money in the industry was enough to keep her comfortable, but something was missing.
What was missing was what she loved the most, which was the ability to explore new media and experiment with colors and pencils, just like when she was in school. The more “online” way of creating was not something she enjoyed.
Simona began to look for work that took her away from still life and portraits. She wanted to get back to the passion she felt when she was able to freely discover new techniques on her own.
Cultivating this passion allowed her to have the courage to exhibit her works in various exhibitions in Napoli, Milan and Rome. When she was given the opportunity to travel and present her works in other countries, she participated in art fairs in Dubai and Innsbruck and, more recently, at the IV Biennale d’arte contemporanea di Salerno and the Sala dell’Armeria del Maschio Angioino in Naples. Her work gained a following with each exhibition and fair she participated in. At the Affordable Art Fair in London, she sold one of her works.
At Castel dell’Ovo in Napoli, in 2019, her solo exhibition titled “Boom” was held. Critics and fans alike considered it a remarkable success, praising her for the simplicity of her works that brought out the intensity of their color. Her experimentation was a highlight, allowing others to see the extent of her designs and how she incorporated mixed media into her pieces.
Sometimes when you meet such busy artists, you might easily imagine them as bohemian globetrotters, free spirits, without families. Reality is not always like this. Simona is a mother of two beautiful children and knows the difficulties that come with balancing her work and her private life. She does not hide the fact that, sometimes, that balance cannot be maintained. However, she says that despite the possible difficult moments, the sacrifices she has made, to have the life she has, have been worth it. She risked leaving the stability of corporate jobs to expand her art, but her talent and the dedication she has shown have borne good fruit. Critics often ask her if her private life influences the effectiveness of her paintings and artwork. She always responds that she would not want her life to be different.
If her private life influences her work, then it shows that it is important enough to her to create art with it.
To what extent does living in Naples influence your work?
S.O.: “Napoli is my main source of inspiration. My starting point. I love my city and I have always tried to tell it through painting by creating a play of light and shadow in my views, typical contrasts of the city, to make it even more fascinating if possible. Napoli is always with me, even when I paint another subject. If I were not Neapolitan, my works would be different.”
Can you tell us about your creative process?
S.O.: “My creative process is a fascinating journey full of technical inspiration and emotions. There is no precise rule, but generally speaking the first phase is the inspirational one. Then there is the project of the work, the choice of dimensions and the most suitable technique to use. After this more complicated phase I move into action and begin to abandon myself to the pleasure of painting while I feel my mind slowly moving away from reality and starting to see everything differently. Then I have to understand when is the right time to finish a painting, observe it in the following days and go from time to time to add or modify details. When I am sure and satisfied with the result I share my work with others through social channels. Art for me is a language and painting is my expression and the way I communicate to others what I see and feel.”
What techniques do you use in your art?
S.O.: “Lately my favorite technique is acrylic and enamel on canvas, even if every now and then I do creative experiments and use a bit of everything. This allows me to create unique and unrepeatable works.”
Can you live off art in Napoli?
S.O.: “The contemporary scene in Napoli is quite thriving. You can gain visibility through the numerous associations in the area, art galleries, activities in museums and spaces that the Municipality makes available to artists. You have to get busy and not lose heart, but like many artists I know, I do it, diversifying my work and dividing it between paintings, prints and creative workshops in schools and in my Atelier, where I organize Art Therapy meetings for all age groups.”
When you paint, do you listen to music? If so, what kind of music most favors your artistic flair?
S.O.: “Music is omnipresent. I listento a bit of everything, from classical music, opera and pop rock to Neapolitan, Italian and foreign singers.”
As an artist, what is your relationship with technology?
S.O.: “Good, and I believe that technology is an important support for an artist. I would like more time to be able to take refresher courses on some graphics programs. Maybe in the future…”
Is art therapeutic or, better yet, how do you think art can change the way we think about a particular topic?
S.O.: “Art is therapy: two years ago I took my first Master in Art Therapy. This has changed my vision of life. I understood that art does not necessarily have to be performative, but can also be created for personal well-being through creative processes that lower stress levels, improve communication with others and self-awareness. It can be applied in the medical field for mental problems in safe places. It can help us to welcome, be more empathetic, not to judge, and to better feel our emotions and those of others and all this makes us more human.”
How do you imagine the picture of your future painted?
S.O.: “The future without a past does not exist: we must “embrace” our experiences, process them, transform them and then start dreaming: I dream of a future full of success and inner completeness: a giant picture full of all the colors that have filled me so far, where all the houses that overlap like thoughts, projects and people who have enriched my life, are full of open doors and windows to welcome new experiences, stimuli, visions, real and fantastic journeys. In my future picture there are always horizons to distance oneself from reality and dream, always”.
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