Always bearer of an aesthetic vision of things, Leandro expresses his inner landscapes through art. Surprisingly peaceful worlds where each of us would love to live.
Leandro, tell us your story. At least as far as art is concerned.
More than a story, it is my way of being. I have always had a mental predisposition that leads me to think and re-think how things can change, which is the drive for any creative process. I always had an aesthetic opinion, also because my father is a painter therefore I breathed and absorbed art from a very young age. For many years I dedicated myself to graffiti, and this was crucial to my professional path as a graphic designer. Graffiti painting requires sensitivity in looking for the order, in finding the distribution of the weights, which is very useful in my job. I do graphic design, illustration and animation for communication and publishing, and here I can exploit this kind of skill. In parallel, I have continued to nurture my artistic side, which is of a very different nature.
Which are the differences?
Whoever works as a graphic designer, for instance for a communication agency, should not have one’s own style. In this field one needs to recount something that must be coherent with the visual identity of the client, creating a system of symbols, traits and metaphors capable of transmitting their values.
Art, on the other hand, allows one to express one’s own style, and this makes every artistic voice unique. In my case, art allows me to set my sensitivity free to emerge, tapping into my less logical and rational side. In my works I express thoughts and feelings, with a mental process completely different from the one I apply to my job as a graphic designer or illustrator. I don’t follow a project, I try to tell something which is difficult to define with words, and that often does not have a univocal meaning.
So how is your art born?
Let us say it comes to me. Somehow the image appears to me, as if I were able to touch it, and I recreate it. Of course, I later add details and work on the colours, but the subject and its story is proposed to me in an almost automatic way.
A recurring image in your work is the dachshund. Why?
It is an important part of my life; its presence symbolizes our connection. To me a dog is a sure place in the world, far from any menace. There is a simplicity to it which makes it very honest and sincere, pure. The presence of my dog in my vision is a sort of contact with this dimension, faraway from all the wrongful dynamics of this world. Curiously my illustrations seem to express a personality quite different from my own, probably because they tap into something very profound.
Are you working on anything in particular at the moment?
To be honest I never have real plans. I work on something new when I feel the moment is right. I don’t “look” for an idea. I might have more or less productive periods, but not because of my clear decision. In the end, I have the opportunity to express myself in different ways: right now, aside from my job as a graphic designer, illustrator and animator, I created a clothing brand and I manage the artistic direction. I mean, I am lucky to be able to put my imagination to good use.
