FROM THE EDITORS OF SOME OF THE MOST READ HOMES AND INTERIORS MAGAZINES TO THE OWNERS OF CRAFTY AND CREATIVE START-UP BUSINESSES, WE SIT DOWN WITH THOSE IN THE KNOW TO GET THE SCOOP ON EVERYTHING FROM WHAT A NORMAL DAY IS LIKE TO THEIR FUTURE TREND PREDICTIONS.

In this month’s Behind The Brush interview, we’re getting to know London based artist Gianinna Delpino.

1. WHAT IS A NORMAL DAY FOR YOU?

GD: Writing my dreams when I wake up. Meditate for an hour. Then everything starts from there and I never know what is going to happen.

2. WHAT DO LOVE THE MOST ABOUT YOUR PROFESSION?

GD: That I can change perceptions, make people think and open consciousness. Art can shake the blindness we choose to be immersed in.

3. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN YOUR PROFESSION?

GD: Being an artist is a very unstable place to be. Its like you are giving your soul away all the time, it is to expose it and use it to create. After a project finishes, you have to reinvent yourself.

4. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME AN ARTIST?

GD: I guess I’ve always been a very spiritual person and art is a spiritual practice.

I’m always overwhelmed by life around me (and inside) and I have a strong sense of wonder, being able to represent that into something tangible feels like a relief. I have been an artist from being very small.

5. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED WHILST BEING AN ARTIST?

GD: When you do what you love, something that makes you deeply happy, it becomes a chain of goodness. People love your work and ask you to do it for them, offering you things and opportunities. Doing what you love might involve letting go of every materialistic idea. That is the second biggest lesson. I compare it with being a monk. At the end you become this very humble person open to everything, that is when things start to happen. When you are content within yourself you don’t expect anything, so whenever things come, they feel like a gift.

6. WHAT HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR PROFESSION SO FAR?

GD: Surprising others, showing them other worlds. I love their wonder, like when you see the world for the first time, showing them there is so much inside each one of us. Showing them that there is more to life than having a nine to five job, buying things, eating, getting married etc.

7. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR GETTING IN THE CREATIVE ZONE?

GD: I have to organise my workspace – a clear space is a clear mind. Silence is what I love the most and that is very hard to find, not be interrupted, that’s the key. If I’m feeling very excited about a project, sometimes I can’t sleep thinking about it and I can’t wait to start the next day and work on it.

8. WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?

GD: Ideas come all the time – from personal experiences, the way I see life, with colours and beauty. Whether I realise them or not, depends on what I am going through in my life and if the idea fits with this, the message is usually more powerful when it is, and in turn you learn something from it.

9. WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS FROM START TO FINISH?

GD: As I don’t just work with one media but are all different types, the process differs. With painting, for example, I start with a small-scale sketch in a book to download it from my head and then I start to work on it. Sometimes I just go straight to the wood or wall to paint in a very intuitive way, with a brush, carving tools or textiles in my hand just following what comes to me in that moment. Most of my work has been done like this.

10. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

GD: To make art that has a deeper meaning, that can say something without needing an explanation, like with so many other pieces of art these days. Art is not talking to the heart anymore, is talking to the minds and that is what’s destroying our humanity. We need rational explanation and instructions for everything – not being able to feel or understand our world intuitively. To help with that and to wash off a bit of that hardcore brainwashing that’s going on would be my little contribution.

Check out more of Gianinna’s work here!