“Words are important to me; I’ve discovered there is some magic in words. Words are energy, if we know how to use them well.” Liliana La Vecchia thus describes, in her workshop, the activity of calligrapher, that since many years has accompanied her life. On the table her works, cards, boards and beside also some furnishing complements, a small table, a lamp that are waiting to be transformed by her calligraphic strokes. “For me – she explains – it’s not a simple virtuous exercise or some writing ability, I’m interested in using calligraphy to tell something, and to tell it the way I like, looking for new graphisms and even trying sometimes to hide the message, as, in my opinion, it’s beautiful to find out what is written. I believe that the message is never disjointed by calligraphy or, better said, I like, when I do something, to see it realized concretely, little by little.” “When I was a little girl – she remembers – I loved playing the magician; well, we could say that these works are for me like several little rites, where something is written, and there is also the intention to communicate something through the image. It’s not only calligraphy”.
The life-path of Liliana is rich of experiences: “I’ve done plenty of things: artwork, scholastic publishing for a living, I’ve sold mortgages for a living, too. I’ve been a set designer, when I graduated from the Academy, I’ve been a costume designer. Then with some friends we have opened a furnishing complements store and we worked together for some time creating one-of-a-kind pieces. I was already working a lot on the figurative aspect. At last, I began teaching. I really like to communicate with people, and now that I’m teaching, I realize that I like it more and more”.
Parallel to this, Liliana has never abandoned the artistic activity that has come a long way since the High School “where I had a great artist as teacher, Mario Giansone. An artist, who still is for me an important inspirational figure. I must thank him for all I’ve learnt. He and Kitty Sabatier, a lady calligraphy master, that I’m still following now, are key persons in my life”.
Liliana’s journey continues now with a work of research, always with a special attention to the message, details and image. “I make collages, I make work by a pseudo-engraving, that is working with calligraphic ink directly on paper, creating unique pieces. I love to utilize cardboards, diverse papers. I love the applied art using, for example, little table, lamps, folding screens, shelves. Objects that I sometimes recycle or often make from scratch. By word of mouth, I receive requests by clients who often demand customized objects. I’ve just completed a family tree drawn on a big panel”.
Teacher, artist, artisan, how do you feel?
“We are so many things, I don’t consider myself only a mother, or only a wife, only an artist, only an artisan. I’m not even only a calligrapher, a part of me is a calligrapher, another part is still in search of expression. What I can say is that this part of me calls, has always called and cyclically take over the rest. It’s a way of life, I’ve always been in love with signs and colors. Maybe – she ends – the time will come that I will do only this. I don’t ask me who I am, I know that word, image, and the search of their meaning will always be part of me”.
Liliana La Vecchia
Atelier
Via Cristalliera 11
Torino