ART INDIEGESTION

A young artist point of view: Clo’s artistic world among Indie music, modern fashionable Madonnas and Leonardo

Clo,”Aoi”

Christmas atmosphere starts its cheerful dance throughout the streets of London, windows full of new ideas for presents and people going around in search of inspiration. It’s Saturday afternoon and the cold North European wind is blowing, reminding   everyone that winter is at the door. Clo’s black long hair, half hidden by a white hat, flies all around her face until she enters a café in Chiswick.

Clo is a London based artist, her digital paintings and drawings featuring song lyrics have been published on popular Italian musicians’ websites like Colapesce and The Zen Circus. They represent young fashionable girls (Clo herself is fashionable) surrounded by lyrics that either adorn their clothes or form a halo around their heads. “I don’t know how the inspiration for these came. I was kind of depressed because i quit drawing for a short period of time and I felt like I was losing my skills”,  she reveals while sadly looking into her past. “As I read that you always should make a drawing in the morning and one in the evening, I started drawing spoons and erasers. Which was actually difficult because you must take into consideration perspective. It was then that I held a pencil and drew these music-speaking girls.” They’re modern saints and Madonnas with a halo around their haircuts. “I like English, like lyrics taken from Mumford and Sons, Beirut or Coldplay because they’ve got loads of ‘Ys’ which perfectly fit into the image, although the best ones are in Japanese becuase they themselves resemble a drawing”. However, most of the songs that inspire her are borrowed from Italian indie bands, that she then translates into English and post on her website. “I don’t know how I got so much into indie music, probably I’ve been influenced by some schoolmates or friends who’ve got bands back in Italy. I think it’s probably the economic crisis, but there have been so many awesome indie groups lately!”. Which is true. In the past few years many indie bands have been discovered in the Italian music scene, “not only skillful, but with a social message to say, I feel them so much! That’s what I like about Italian music, and Italian indie, in particular”. It may sound weird because  normally one would think about Italian music in terms of opera or pop à la Ramazzotti. The truth is that groups like Perturbazione, Colapesce, Lo Stato Sociale, Verdena or The Zen Circus are now surfing the waves of Italian pop/rock sea especially among young people in their 20s and 30s. This is one of the reasons Clo’s works have been so much appreciated by her public. At a certain point even musicians started to like her drawings. “One day I noticed a real waterfall of likes on my tumblr and I just couldn’t explain myself why. then, I realised the pop singer Colapesce was actually publishing my drawings on his website… and he even contacted me! Since then I’ve been contacted by some fan groups of Coldplay and Verdena. Andrea Appino, the lead singer of The Zen Circus, keeps some of them on his website, like a black and white portrait I made of him”.  A satisfaction that made some bands ask her for album artworks. Yet drawing is something deep for Clo, and she is not sure she will accept their requests. “You know”, she says while she quite ecstatically enjoys a cinnamon donut with strawberries and chocolate, “I usually have a song in my mind that I keep on listening to while I’m drawing. Then I pick up the most important lyrics to me. it’s kind of personal and something I created without taking inspiration from any other artist”. Her facial expression darkens remembering when someone asked her if he could copy her drawings for an exhibition. “I draw during break at work”, she explains, underlining that she also works as an HR director for an international school in order to survive in London, “and in the evening, when I practice with digital art, because it gives me the sense of proportion and perspective. So it’s just cruel that someone else put their name under my works, they just don’t cosider all my efforts”.

Clo, “And I chose you for mysterious reasons” (inspired by Appino, ‘Il testamento’)

The will to improve a little bit every day and the deep passion for art is what pushes Clo to experiment with digital art and colours: she’s just started adding some colourful marks to her pencil-drawn saints. “I quite like them, although this feeling doesn’tlast for long: I’m never completely satisfied with the results”. The, she goes back  to her past once again and thinks about her art-heroes. “I’ll tell you”, she whispers as if she’s bout to reveal a big secret “this is XVI century gossip: Leonardo started his career quite late because they said he didn’t have any talent. He was introduced to Verrocchio just because his father knew him. Look where he’s arrived! I’m not Leonardo, but when I was a child everybody wanted me to quit ’cause apparently I didn’t have any talent. Now, when I go back to it, I reckon they just thought this profession wouldn’t guarantee a solid economic future to me. So I studied Japanese… and I was jobless anyway. But I do not wnat to quit anymore. Passion is what drives me and everyone else who dedicates his life to figurative art, music, writing…”. That’s the main reason why she hates the word ‘talent’: it does exist, but doesn’t mean anything if you don’t try to improve your technique.

So, any other projects for the near future except improving? “Well, I’m waiting for Appino to come to London. But before I’m gonna see Woodkid with the BBC Orchestra!”. A secret dream shyly jumps out of her colourful soul: interpreting music through her art. Like the often underrated Italian painter and cartoonist Andrea Pazienza (1956-1988) who collaborated, among others, with Italian snger song-writer Roberto Vecchioni for the artwork of the album Montecristo (1980) and with progressive rock band PFM for their Passpartù CD cover (1978).
A smile appears in her sweet brown eyes, “I would accept immediately if The Zen Circus asked me!”.

Marcella

Clo, inspired by Afterhours “Il sangue di Giuda”

Clo, inspired by Jeff Buckley ‘Dream Brother’

Clo, ‘Portrait of Andrea Appino from The Zen Circus’