ARTIST STORIES | INSPIRE & EMPOWER Jacopo del Sellaio By Alessandra Roccasalva 42 <strong>Feb</strong>ruary <strong>2023</strong> www.magzoid.com
Poetic digital illustration “My imag<strong>in</strong>ative universe is a mixture of suggestions, references, and paradigms of memory <strong>in</strong> which I feed on <strong>the</strong> past to claim a new order dom<strong>in</strong>ated by fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e sensitivity and delicate timeless beauty,” says Alessandra. - Exclusive to <strong>Magzoid</strong> Alessandra Roccasalva, an Italian graphic designer and illustrator, lives and works <strong>in</strong> Mar<strong>in</strong>a di Ragusa, Sicily. Alessandra graduated from <strong>the</strong> Academy of F<strong>in</strong>e Arts <strong>in</strong> Catania, specializ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g and cultural heritage. She started mak<strong>in</strong>g collages for fun, mostly draw<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>spiration from works of art, and with millions of dots of “Bézier,” she cut out, isolate, and piece toge<strong>the</strong>r o<strong>the</strong>r beautiful nature. She believes that images, due to <strong>the</strong>ir ambiguity and immense range of mean<strong>in</strong>gs, are a much more accurate means of break<strong>in</strong>g down and transmitt<strong>in</strong>g our perception of sensible reality. Women, fishes, flowers, constellations, chemical formulas, vectorial math, m<strong>in</strong>d syntagms, and subconscious ontologies. Alessandra’s <strong>in</strong>ner universe is a blend of appeal<strong>in</strong>g, references, and memory paradigma where <strong>the</strong> author absorbs <strong>the</strong> past to set <strong>the</strong> path for a new order ruled by fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e sensibility and gentle, timeless beauty. In a figurative short-circuit between past and present, her surreal collages are a welleducated retread of <strong>the</strong> history of art upon a technological note. The artist makes some of <strong>the</strong> most famous contemporary icons to narrate, <strong>in</strong> some sort of sarcastic puzzle game, her passions, her driv<strong>in</strong>g concepts… <strong>in</strong> short, her life. She does it with that typical, close-toobsessive, care of details that is <strong>the</strong> well-known, modus operandi of a graphic designer. A rework<strong>in</strong>g that turns <strong>the</strong>se illustrations <strong>in</strong>to mirrors of <strong>the</strong> soul, <strong>in</strong>to metaPHYsical visions able to convey a sensation of a seductive mystery where everyth<strong>in</strong>g is symbolic and engages fur<strong>the</strong>r mean<strong>in</strong>gs. Beh<strong>in</strong>d <strong>the</strong> references is hidden <strong>the</strong> explicit will to share, with <strong>the</strong> audience, <strong>the</strong> rediscovery of ancient art; with <strong>the</strong> recursive use of <strong>the</strong> number three, ma<strong>in</strong>ly connected with <strong>the</strong> fish image, her own identity; with <strong>the</strong> recalls to <strong>the</strong> water <strong>the</strong>me, <strong>the</strong> choice of a life <strong>in</strong> close contact with <strong>the</strong> sea; with <strong>the</strong> female portraits <strong>the</strong> belief that <strong>the</strong> role of <strong>the</strong> woman should be more and more lead<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> contemporary society. -feature@magzoid.com www.magzoid.com <strong>Feb</strong>ruary <strong>2023</strong> 43