Video transcript
ARTEXPRESS 2021 - Student interview - 09. Pietro Pelosi

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PIETRO PELOSI: Hi, my name's Pietro Pelosi, and I studied visual arts at Marcellin College Randwick. What inspired me for my body of work was the ideas of isolation in water and was drawn from my personal experience of swimming in my local rockpool. Well, I've always had a strong connection to water, and especially during times last year during COVID, I found swimming in water a very liberating experience. And through that, that allowed me to persevere through last year, and I wanted to communicate that universal experience of swimming underwater.

Well, I first began to think about the idea of water, and what it means to different people and cultures. So I began to think about how water can have religious meanings. It's symbolic of its cleansing abilities. And I kind of wanted to use that symbolism in a way where I could communicate how the ability to swim and be free from all that isolation is a liberating experience. It just can take your mind off what's going on in your life. And that's kind of how I used swimming.

The type of art I enjoy creating is very meticulous and detailed work. So I began to experiment with stippling. I did painting. And then that's when I also kept looking into mediums, and I came across scratch boards. And so scratch boards are black panels, and you can use tools to scratch into it, and it allows for the white under layer to come through. So it's like drawing, except you're drawing in reverse. So instead of drawing the shadows, you're drawing the highlights.

For my artwork called Breathe, I created seven pieces for my collection, and there's seven scratch boards where I used the chiaroscuro style and negative space, and I did self portraits of myself immersed above the water and also underwater. Some of the images I used, I use some references to Michelangelo's God and Adam. And I just wanted to create a surreal look to my work where it takes the audience into another world and immerses them into this dreamlike state.

To create these images, I began taking photos at my local pool with my sister, and after multiple sessions, that's when I came across a few of the images I really liked. And then with those images, I took them into Photoshop, I processed them, I got rid of the background and made black and white. And that's when also I edited the lighting to make it really stark and suitable for transferring onto scratch boards. And once I did that, I used those images to work off and just began drawing.

Working with scratch board's actually a lot more difficult than drawing with your typical pencil. This is because if you make a mistake, you actually can't get rid of it so it's very difficult to remove what you've done. That's what also I liked about it. The fact that once you put something down, you can't take it away. And it's that idea of uncertainty in making choices as a teenager.

Another issue as well was actually drawing on it. You can leave oil stains from your hands on the scratch boards. So with that issue, I had to experiment with multiple finishes, like a matt and satin finish. And I ended up choosing matt because I liked the way it gave it a sleek kind of look when it was hung on the wall. My scratch board tools became blunt over time. So I had to find ways to sharpen my tools, and with that I had to look for multiple sandpapers and try and find one that was fine enough to not destroy the tools but to sharpen them. And that's when I came across a nail file, and it worked perfectly well.

The way I came across my scratch boards actually was me hassling my teacher to get a hot glue gun to fix my [inaudible] because it fell apart. And I was hassling her for about two weeks, and that's when she finally gave in and got this basket that had a bunch of stuff in it and had the hot glue gun in it. And when she put it on the table, that's when I came across the scratch boards. And that's when I asked her, what are these.

Then she showed me, and since then, I kept experimenting with them. I created more detailed works because it's very hard to create realistic drawings in scratches so it took a lot of practise. And basically, my teacher's the one that introduced me to scratch boards. Since starting visual art, I feel like doing my major work's taught me to work under pressure, especially with having other subjects in play and trying to manage your time to be able to get it done.

It's taught me how to manage my time and think ahead. And if I ever in the future want to do big projects as I'm pursuing design and art for my career, it's taught me how to integrate that into your lifestyle and be able to manage your time, and create projects and create art.

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