A Trip to a State of Mind Through a Drawing, the colored pencils of Marco Mazzoni

Marco Mazzoni was born in 1982 in Tortona (AL), Italy. He lives and mainly works in Milano yet his colored pencils are worldwide admired. He's a prolific artist and each new work is way better that the previous one. How is it possible? Here's what he told us.

Less Than Zero. Colored pencils on paper. cm 30x30. 2011.

Marco, looking at your artworks we can clearly see that there's a kind of fil rouge because of the choice of your subjects and the way you represent them. 
Is there any reason why you focus on faces mostly surrounded by flowers, butterflies and birds that sometimes appear almost like hallucinations?

The starting point of all my works are the mystical, the women and their knowledge about the power of nature. My drawings speak about the story of the "Witches", women that  for they ability were killed.
The flowers that i represent are medicinal plants, some of them such as "datura" (or stramonium) are hallucinogenic plants.

Chanteurs. Colored pencils on paper. cm 30x30. 2011. 

Each piece of your work looks extremely powerful and delicate at the same moment. We can't see what your characters are thinking of or what they're doing, neither where they are. Thought we can imagine it. What's the dimension in which they seem to be trapped? 

Dreams dimension, of pleasure.
I wish you could see the still image of the exactly moment when the human being meets the other elements of nature in a merger where all the subjects becomes a single element. Indeed, the light is one and central. It should be ecstasy, the moment in which you forget to be something and become part of everything.

The End of the Golden Age. Colored pencils on paper. cm 30x30. 2011.

Your colored pencils look so vivid: are you experiencing new techniques to make them even more real? How do you refine your work process?

It's a daily work. I studied the techniques of veiling oil, and tried to bring them back to pencils. In practical i work as a painter of the XVII century without the drying times. Each color on the sheet is the result of, at least, six or seven different steps of colored pencils.

Medusa. Colored pencils on paper. cm 25x30. 2011.

Are you currently having an exhibition or working for an upcoming one? 

I'm taking part to "The Emergence of Pop Imagist" in Venice. It's a group exhibition born from the collaboration of two galleries i work with: Jonathan LeVine Gallery and Giovanni Bonelli.
At the moment, in my studio, i'm working on "XtsY": my solo show at Gallery B15 (Copenhagen), coming on November.

How to Survive the Apocalypse. Colored pencils on paper. cm  55x45. 2011. 

The last show you took part in and you love the most. 

I always thing that the best show will be the next.
During the last years i've had the satisfaction to exhibit along with Andrew Hem, Lori Field, Nicola Verlato, Nicoletta Ceccoli, Marta Sesana... artist that i love. To know them is more important than a single show.

Huitzopochti. Colored pencils on paper. cm 25x25. 2011.

Artists of all the time that inspire your art. 

I loved Ribeira, his colors, his light and his dark... I've been studying him for a long time...

Where is your art available to purchase? 

The galleries i'm working with are: Bonelli ArteContemporanea (MN) Italy, Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NY and Gallery B15, Copenhagen.

Janas. Colored pencils on paper. cm 30x30. 2011.

How much - from 1 to 10 - does the mood counts for you while you are drawing? 
1 while i'm drawing. 10 when i read the books i take inspiration from.

Who's the contemporary Italian living artist that you esteem the most? 

There are many. I love artists that talk with a world language but keep the roots... that's why i'd say the work of Nicola Samorì, Nicola Verlato, Fulvio di Piazza, BLU and Ericailcane.

Marja Morèvna. Colored pencils on paper. cm 30x25. 2011.

Would you be so kind to leave a message to TISCO readers?

Any truism of Jenny Holzer is more powerful that my messages.  I'm not able to use words, i speal through colored pencils.

Awabuku. Colored pencils on paper. cm 25x30. 2011.

See the Portfolio.