Sisa Manfredi

You know that mysterious realm that lies between the conscious and the unconscious? That’s where I love to lose myself, only to find myself again, on a journey through Surrealism and Pop Surrealism, breathing in  the magical atmospheres typical of dreams. 

My artworks are rich in  symbolism and populated by characters with poetic and grotesque – at times unsettling – features,  evoking the fantastical world of childhood. Reality and dream merge in mysterious scenes, where the human and animal realms often interact closely, sometimes forging an intimate alliance. 

In the creative process, I sometimes realize only at the end  that I’ve unconsciously evoked the melancholic memory of childhood: that innocence and purity irremediably lost in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, along a path of growth and transformation that is universal to us all. Personally, I find  myself in a  constat state of search, perpetual transformation,  and inner conflict, striving to become that Woman, that Mother, that Artist. And I cling stubbornly to what in psychology defines as  “Magical Thinking” – a trait unique to children, – because over the years, I’ve  discovered it to be  my driving force and my greatest resource.

Digital painting is a medium through which I can express myself with absolute freedom – how I want, when I want – in the most unexpected moments of my everyday life. It’s a necessity, an urgent and all-consuming impulse. My lolitas, the peculiar hominids, my flying fish, the worlds they inhabit -they are the expression of my lived experience,  my affections, my fears and my obsessions. Whether traditional or digital, I believe the act of painting  is pure Magic – a force that overwhelms and carries  me, making the creative mechanism the exploration of one’s deepest self: perfectly human, damned imperfect. Or rather, damned human and perfectly imperfect.