#LUCE LOVES ART - The beauty of Art lies in its diversity. It is a form of expression that can be shaped in the simplest and truest way, the one that best represents you. Your way.
With this project, we wanted to tell this story, which we love so much, adapting it to our Luce, in a perfect blend of style and originality.
We chose to introduce you to some female artists: pleasant new discoveries, but also familiar faces. We had fun with them taking some photos and chatting about their art and their special qualities, in their uniqueness and in their work.
1) Hello! Who are you, what do you do? Hello! I'm Enrica, I'm 32 years old, I'm an illustrator and painter, and I have a shop where I sell my works. I currently live and work in Milan in my home studio.
2) How do you define your style? I call my style Nippo-pop. I'm very fascinated by Japanese aesthetics, by ukiyo-e and shunga. Ten Christmases ago, while I was at university, I asked my parents for a giant book I had glimpsed in Feltrinelli as a gift. I hadn't even leafed through it because it was packaged, as big as an A3 and 15 cm thick, but the cover had struck me. It was a book of Shunga, Japanese erotic art. I liked it so much that I only wanted to learn to draw in that way, so I started studying Japanese drawing, which has big differences from the Western way of learning to draw. Over the years, I allowed myself to get lost and make things my own, to be influenced, to change my mind, but some things I adopted, such as designing prints and canvases often in series, adhering to certain formats and proportions, and the importance of creating prints accessible to everyone.
3) Where do you come from? I was a chef for eight years, first while I was studying then as a real job, and painting was a hobby for years that nobody saw. I did some exhibitions but produced little because I could only work on it at night after shifts at the restaurant or on my days off. When the lockdown started, everything changed. I was managing a small kitchen in Venice and I was very tired but very proud: I found myself standing still, without a salary and without a contract because the place where I worked was going to close and the owner didn't tell me. Doing some calculations, I realized that cooking no longer made me happy, I had been exploited for too long and it seemed like I hadn't built anything. So I started drawing, taking courses, one after another. As soon as I could, I opened my VAT number and slowly started a small shop of prints that were very popular. I am very grateful to my first customers, they believed in me.
4) Where are you going? At the moment I'm drawing many new prints and designing an illustrated book for adults in addition to my regular work, which consists of commissions for brands and managing my shop. I hope to be able to carve out a few months to paint a new series of paintings and exhibit them.
Credits - Artist: Enrica Zaggia, Photographer: Marta Dall'Agnola