My artworks have a collective name "intense emotional reactions.” The name refers to the fact that my paintings are a study of my identity and emotions. I was always told, in a negative way, that women are too emotional, too intense. Therefore, I used terms that had an impact on my life to create something meaningful to me. In addition to this, my paintings come with a print of lyrics that I write for each artwork in Italian and English.

Studying identity through society's pressure on my body.

We live in a demanding society, a society that aims for the destruction of individuality and teaches us, from a young age, that our bodies should be objectified and criticised. As a young woman, I lived with constant pressure from myself first and then those around me. With this artwork, I want to represent with acrylics, canvas, pouring medium, glass medium and lyrics, my reaction to those times my identity was compromised by society's pressure to look and behave in a certain way. Society's eyes scrutinising and judging every part of my body, society's hands craving to touch it.

Lyrics:

Their eyes, pinning me down
Silently in the night
Their hands are looking for the wrong answers all over my body
I don’t want to feel, I don’t want to give in
My whispers broke the mirrors
They carved little parts of my essence
And bled what I could not give
To that hateful reflecting image
The sound of the shower
Louder than gagging sounds
Bruises on my knees, waiting for that person
Satisfying the attentions that I long for
And inside my head the phone is ringing
But it never does
And I am never on my own
The days are conflicting emotions and pressing thoughts
Am I alone or am I lonely?

This painting represents being "lighter". My mother always told me that to save myself, I have to be a feather, breathe, don't let everything affect me and just be light. Fly above negativity. This painting expresses the emotions that I felt feeling light.

This is about feeling part of something greater than myself, nature. Knowing that despite my anxieties and despite everything, I belong to this life, I am part of something magnificent. When my body will end its journey, I will be part of nature and it's the greatest gift.

Lyrics:

The thought of death
kept me awake too many nights.
But one day I woke up
both feet on the grass
I walked
I took a deep breath and I saw
where I will go
Once I leave this world
I will be on the trees
wind
sun
moon
I will be there
Among everything

Wait For Me about feeling left behind but not only. Missing someone intensely the moment your heart skips a beat and you realise that someone is gone from your life and it's a loss and you wish they could wait for you but they can't and they won't and there is nothing you can do but watch them go and flourish somewhere else and try and be happy for them and you have this feeling of wanting this person so much but there Ian nothing you can do. The water comes to your mouth and the tide is high and you did not realise that it was like that but it's too late now and all you can do is learn to swim on your own and you wish they could wait for you.

Lyrics:

the tide is high wait for me

Chasing ghosts

I do not exist here

I don't run away from here.

My body is all that I own

I am complete on my own

This painting represents solitude. Growing up, I felt a very intense feeling and need to isolate myself. It was hard for me to find a middle ground and therefore my relationships have been a mixture of ups and downs. With this painting, I want to convey the times that I have isolated myself in a negative light. I literally cried while doing this painting, I just felt so many different emotions and so many things that I needed to let out. While mixing the colours I could feel this massive wave coming at me and I was ready to fight it but then I stopped. I just let it happen and I allowed my hands to take over, just mix colours and pour down the paint. When I finished, I sat there thinking about how hard it is to portray emotions but how rewarding it is when I let go of them on canvas.

I wrecked the wall and I started painting about identity through suffering, anxiety and healing. My pain was hungry for more. It wanted to devour me from the inside. But through colours, through my lyrics, I allow myself to open up to the world and show that there is a way out. There is a way to cope, no matter what. We can survive and we can live. We do not have to suffer alone, in silence, there are so many out there who can relate, who are just waiting for someone to speak up so that they can find the strength to do it too. I grew up admiring Frida’s work and words, she inspired me deeply and gave me strength. My work “solitude” is about despair, suffering and loneliness.

Lyrics:

Hold my love inside the twilight
expecting peaceful drunk princesses
reaching distant echoes
dancing on my own

Submitted by Alessia Camoirano Bruges.

The Art Of Letting Go