Fabrizia Bazzo
Always in my life, whenever I have had to recover from any kind of trauma, I start to become very introspective looking deep inside myself and I started making “Secret Garden” last year with the idea of wanting to make something “therapeutic”. It was a work that would help heal the emotional scars of an accident that happened one year before, forcing me to return to my workbench; cutting and painting glass working - with the medium that I love. As so often happens, the original design has changed organically, just as my attitude towards life in general has. Now, with Covid-19 and the lockdown, I have felt that I am living through another trauma, although collectively this time, but a trauma that will still leave a scar and, probably, will force us to change our attitude on life as well. Out of this experience I hope to find some seeds ... some reference points to grasp ... some traces of hope and enthusiasm ... but I worry that, even if I do find them, how are they ever going to germinate and flourish in this arid soil?
Secret Garden
Self-standing glass panel mounted on steel base. Acid etched and painted glass laminated to toughened glass carrier
THE PANDEMIC EFFECT
These are very strange and difficult times in which we are now living …. During the months of lockdown, working in isolation with the threshold of mental survival constantly changing, I experienced many different feelings; at first there was apathy (nothing seemed to have changed with respect to my normal daily life), then a loss of my sense of purpose and, finally, having to regain control of my life, both as an artist and as a human being.
I had two major works in progress on the bench when this started but, due to the closure of all commercial activities, these had to be put on hold…. With the shift of reality, the meaning and scope of the work I had planned has also inevitably changed. I have adapted to a new scenario of working using all the tools and facilities available to me online and I have started to think about the best way to become self-sufficient. So, I can now prepare and expose my own stencils that I will use to screen-print sifted dry glass powder to fuse on glass – at least I am learning some new skills and techniques, so all is not yet lost!