A new chrysantemum piece

[sf_roma]

Hello everybody,
I tend not to post my work - but at the San Francisco Pen Show last weekend, the feedback I received on my work while buying new fountain pens made me think you'd be interested.

I was a woodblock printmaker for years, studied in Tokyo, and was born and raised in Rome, Italy. I was an artist in residence at the San Francisco Asian Art museum in 2004 and have been showing internationally for 15 years.

My recent works are ink drawings pairing excerpts of trees and flora with excerpts of contemporary poetry. This is a piece inspired by the poetry of Cid Corman.

I do an initial drawing in pencil after extensive preparatory drawings from life (I've spent a lot of time admiring chrysanthemums!)


Then I mix purple ink and apply it with an inexpensive Lamy with some flex.
All my work is done with either fountain pens or dip pens. I mix my own inks from an extensive pigment and ink collection I've collected from all over the world.



And the Corman poem I've been reading and re-reading:


Ciao!
Marco Flavio

[migo984]

Beautiful work. I love how you delineate the shape of the petals and pare the flower head down to a clean, simple form. The ink colour is gorgeous. And it's an inspired pairing with the Corman piece. It's one of my favourites.

[sf_roma]

Thank you migo. My work revolves around distilling a context to its essence, so most of the work is done before ever setting pencil to paper: reading, sketching, re-reading, processing: life washing over the idea. It takes me months of preparation.
A year or so ago I did a piece about the pines of Rome, Italy (my hometown); it was on my drawing board for probably five months. Every few days adding something, then letting weeks go by as I looked at it. Then getting back to it.
Much like Corman's poetry. Or Robert Hass' the editing (in my case before starting the actual drawing part) is essential.