Marcella Colavecchio is an Art of Austin artist!
Introducing Marcella!
AoA – How long have you been in Austin and how did you find your way here?
Marcella – I moved to Austin about two years ago, but I’ve always known that I wanted to live and work here. I grew up in Stamford, Connecticut and lived on the East Coast for thirty years before I realized I needed a breath of fresh air. Austin was always that fresh, cool breeze to me. Every time I visited, I never wanted to go back. And eventually, I never did!
AoA – When did you realize that you were an artist?
Marcella – I realized I was an artist at a very young age. As an only child, my parents always encouraged me to keep busy by doing something creative. My father is an abstract painter and master metal craftsman, he always pushed me to be the best at anything I put my mind to. At the age of 11, I made my first animation cell based on a short documentary I watched on Walt Disney Animation Studios. At the age of 16, I fully became aware that the word “artist” would define me for the rest of my life.
AoA – Where do you derive inspiration from?
Marcella – I derive a lot of my inspiration from life drawing, experiences, and music. Life and experience help me understand the message I need to convey, while music helps me get to the finish line with the execution.
AoA – Can you speak to your art training?
Marcella – When I was 16 years old, I was chosen by my high school to participate in a program for exceptional art students. Once a week, I’d get to travel up to Lyme Academy of Fine Art in Old Lyme, CT and take an 8 hour figure drawing class taught by the late Deane Keller — free of charge. Deane wrote the incredible, “Draftsman Handbook”, which taught me everything I would need to know about drawing the human body. To this day, I still have a few of his scribbles on old figure drawings of mine that I’ll always cherish.
Dean’s work:
My work at Lyme:
Dean passed away a year and a half after the program started and by that time, I considered pursuing an art school education. This was my passion. I loved drawing and I wanted to learn how to paint and sculpt. But I couldn’t afford it, and started the hard, long road of being a self-taught artist.
AoA – What your work is concerned with?
Marcella – All of my work can be seen as a journal entry. It’s the manifestation of ruminations of my place and purpose in the world. As a figurative artist, I’ve always been fascinated by the human mind and body. I often think about how our body language and expressions can elicit certain responses from my viewer. Throughout 2019 and leading up into my first solo exhibition, I explored topics of depression, anxiety, insecurity, and dependency in my paintings. The subjects in my work personify the boldness and frailty of consciousness and the depths in which we absorb the human condition. My figures are often deformed and displaced, with layered lines that are both strong and self-aware.
My work also explores the power and beauty of sexuality and the stigma of societal expectations of the female form. I seek answers to a few larger questions: What defines me as an individual? Am I just a product of my culture, my experiences, and my sex? My art is meant to make the viewer stop and consider their inner voice and suggest that there may be more to us than what we portray on the surface. I always seek to make people feel just a little uncomfortable.
AoA – What are your preferred mediums?
Marcella – I exclusively use acrylic and, honestly, interior house paint is the shit. I usually mix the two in order to get the consistently and opacity I’m looking for.
AoA – Can you talk a little about your creative processes?
Marcella – Since my work is usually a manifestation of something I feel; I need to be in the right headspace to sit down and create the exact vision. I do a lot of sketching before I get down to putting paint on canvas, and sometimes I’ll make smaller paintings of an idea before tackling a larger piece.
Here was my thought process behind “Visceral”:
Sometimes my sketches are thorough, sometimes they’re just blobs. They’re more blob-like when I can’t picture the exact composition in my head.
When I do finish a piece, I’m truly finished with it. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest. My mind is a little more relaxed. From there I can move onto the next one.
AoA – Do you have any feelings towards Digital Art versus traditional mediums?
Marcella – I know there’s a lot of contention when it comes to this question! It takes so much practice and dedication to master either one. As a traditional artist, it’s hard for me to sit in front of a computer and have the same creative process as sitting in front of a canvas. I mean, layering? That’s hard to do when you’re used to making quick decisions with acrylic. I mix colors constantly. Everything is right in front of me. I don’t have to access a menu or remember a swift key. It’s tough to switch your mindset!
AoA – Who are some artists that you look to?
Marcella –
Dead Artists:
- Picasso – I respect Picasso so much as an artist. He was classically trained, driven by legacy, and the need to do something different than what anyone else was doing. One of his earlier pieces, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907) was revolutionary, scandalous, and immoral. Even with that, he was driven to continue to revolutionize the way we saw the world through art.
- Francis Bacon – Francis’ work perfected exactly what I hope to accomplish in my work – communicating powerful emotions. His ability to create such powerful statements is still astonishing to me.
Living Artists
- David Spriggs – I’ve never seen anything like this work. It astounds me; it excites me as an artist. It makes me want to try harder, dig deeper, and look at things in a different perspective.
- Denis Sarazhin – Denis is truly inspiring. His figures are powerful, the palette is vibrant and vast, and the movement he’s able to achieve in his pieces is incredible. He’s holding a few overseas workshops this year that I’m very tempted to sign up for.
- Nikolas Antoniou – Nikolas is a more recent find for me in the last year. I love his execution. He was able to find a balance between figure, color, and space. I love his technique and appreciate that he shares a lot of his creative process online.
- Henrik Uldalen – Henrik holds the title of being the FIRST artist I followed on Instagram. Henrik is a self-taught painter with a dark aesthetic. I’ve always enjoyed his take on themes we both explore in our work and often find his perspective and execution refreshing and beautiful.
AoA – If you could own 1 piece from a living artist, who would it be?
Marcella – I would clear out the first floor of my house just to be able to walk into my front door, and into a giant, glowing David Spriggs piece.
AoA – Big question. What do you feel the role of art is in the world?
Marcella – I believe that art can create real progress in challenging societal stigma and discrimination by celebrating social difference, diversity, and challenging attitudes. Art is meant to evolve and make people feel uncomfortable. We are meant to find new ways of expression and it’s supposed to be hard! Art should force us to break out of our comfort zone and try something new, so that future generations can aspire to attempt more groundbreaking things.
AoA – What else do you enjoy besides making art?
Marcella – I love playing billiards and played competitively in a league for about 8 years #imahustlerbaby I also love spending time with my partner, who’s a woodworker/illustrator, and my dog, who’s a goofball.
AoA – Where can we find your work? Do you have any shows planned for the future?
Marcella – You can find my work online! I’m very active on the Gram and I always keep my website up to date. If you’re ever in Austin, I love studio visits. My studio is open to the public, so hit me up if you ever want to swing by to talk and/or paint with me. I don’t have any shows planned for the near future. I’m primarily focused on my process and creating more work.
AoA – Any final advice for all the artists reading out there?
Marcella – Don’t be afraid to be different or misunderstood. Don’t be afraid to be hated. Let go of the fear of “not being perfect”. Create for the love of creating. Find your happiness in the way your piece develops.
Learn from it, rip it up, start over.
Connect with Marcella!