On this week’s installment of Across The Pond, I chat with my dear friend Alessandra Genualdo. Born in Italy and based in London, Ale is an illustrator and painter, greatly inspired by the female figure. All of her portraits revolve around women. Drawing on her long-term journey with mental health, Alessandra creates soul-stirring paintings, which stare back at you long after you’ve looked away.

LYNDERS: How long have you been painting and at what point did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I’ve only been painting for the past eight or nine years, but I’ve known I wanted to do something creative ever since I was very little. Over the years, I went through phases of being really into photography or videography and at one point even went through a stage of making homemade stuffed toys – all sorts of things to find a way to channel my creativity. 

I studied graphic design for my BA, but when I moved to London, I did an illustration short course and realised I wanted to be an illustrator. That path took me to Camberwell College of Art where I did my MA in Illustration in 2012.

You’re originally from the South of Italy. What inspired your move to London?
I never felt like I was destined to stay in Italy. I always wanted to live somewhere where I could express my creativity more freely. London seemed like the perfect place and I’ve been here for ten years now.

Your dog Kira is such an integral part of your life. How long has she been by your side?
Kira is eight-years-old and she’s been with me for six-and-a-half years. I grew up with English Setters, so they’ve always had a special place in my heart. When I was ready to rescue a dog of my own, I went to Italy as they have a big English Setter Rescue Association. Setters are commonly used for hunting there and many are found abandoned in the woods. Around that time, it just so happened that Kira was looking for a new family because she wasn’t good at hunting – she was basically a hunting dog that was fired from her job and needed a new owner. That new owner was me!

What is your main source of inspiration when drawing your characters?
To some extent, my work is autobiographical. All of my characters are women. I’m inspired by the female body but also the amazing strength of women. My characters are an indirect representation of the women I see on the street, women from the fashion world, and sometimes even women from my background or memories.

My characters also represent myself. They have evolved with me through time on what is a very personal journey brought to life through my art.

You are an expert at capturing the internal world of your subjects and have an incredible eye for illustrating women who seem to have a delicate story. Is emotion a theme that has always existed within your work?
The way my characters show their emotions always related back to my own emotions, so it has always existed – whether it be a moment of struggle, contemplation, or melancholia, my work is sort of a mirror and projection of myself and my own emotional state. They look melancholic because that is how I see myself.

I love the idea that other women can look at my work and relate to the emotions displayed by my characters and interpret it in their own way that is personal to them.

Now that the conversation around mental health is shifting and there is so much more discussion around depression and anxiety, do you feel any pressure to explain why your characters are melancholic?
Mental health problems have accompanied me my whole life, and while I really do appreciate the more recent openness and awareness around mental health problems, for me, this is something which is life-long.

I suffer from depression but I don’t want mental health to define me or my work, which is why I don’t feel the need to address the topic in any other way than through the emotion of my characters. I let them do the talking for me.

When you put your work out there, you’re already very vulnerable as you’re revealing such a personal side of yourself to everyone. That already makes me feel exposed. That’s another reason why I don’t want to justify or give too many explanations as to why the women I paint quite often look sad. I’m already putting enough of my own emotion out there through my work.

It’s funny to me because sometimes with commercial work I’ve been asked to make my women look happier. If it suits the purpose of the assignment, I’m always prepared to compromise and it can often be as subtle as changing the eyebrow to lift her mood. I perceive commercial work very differently than what I would put in a gallery. I know I have to compromise and that’s OK.

I will say though, that I’ve been very lucky with my commercial work. My work is so openly addressed to women and their relationships with themselves and each other that I usually only get commissions that address those themes.

What are you most excited about when it comes to the evolving conversation around mental health?
It makes me really hopeful that we are all working together towards eliminating the stigma and taboo around mental health problems. It warms me that people that suffer from these problems can now feel more free to talk about how they feel and what they are going through. By talking about these issues more, I think this will also help people who are close with those who suffer from mental health issues to understand more of what they are going through and be better placed to help them.

You have collaborated with big brands like Gucci and Prada and have built quite a name for yourself in the fashion world as a result. How big an influence is fashion within your creative process?
When I look at new fashion collections, I can immediately imagine it translating into a new painting as something one of my characters could wear. I really enjoy immersing myself in the world of fashion and incorporating it into my work as much as I can. 

The beauty of the models combined with the beauty of the clothes can reflect the mood and personality of the character so I always take the time to consider the fashion of each of my characters as part of my creative process.

Do you find your creative process to be therapeutic or manic?
Like many artists, my process is both therapeutic and manic. Once I start painting, I don’t stop until I’m finished.

I do really enjoy the process and when I’m painting, the world makes sense to me; I realise this is what I’m supposed to be doing in life.

Painting gives me clarity. Sometimes it makes me feel sad, sometimes it gives me anxiety, but it’s also always what I go to to make me feel better.

If I was to X-ray one of your paintings, how many layers are underneath before you settle on the final piece?
I pencil and then I paint. It’s quite straightforward and I rarely paint over – I just destroy and start again. I tend to only begin painting when I’m already quite clear about how I want the end piece to look. I know where my inspiration comes from so I lean on those elements to bring me clarity of what I want to paint.

The culture of being a freelancer often pushes artists to a place with a huge amount of pressure to secure and accept as many gigs as they are offered. How do you manage this pressure and take care of your body and mind in the process?
When you are freelance, you can never feel fully detached from the work. I feel as if I can’t really take time off in case I miss an exciting opportunity. This is more in relation to commercial work. When it comes to my own work, I don’t really feel like I need to take time off – it’s such a big part of me.

To relax, I listen to music, read a book, do yoga, go for a walk in the park with Kira. It’s these little things that help make me feel more detached from the pressure of the work.

What or who are your creative inspirations and in what way do they influence your work?
Nature is a huge inspiration for me. I definitely have a need to feel connected to nature, maybe because I grew up in the countryside. You can see a lot of elements of nature in my work – often the women are holding a flower or a sprig, for example.

I’m also heavily inspired by Scandanavian and 60’s and 70’s interiors. Ingmar Bergman and Wim Wenders are hugely influential to me. I like experimental cinema and music like Broadcast and Cocteau Twins.

Artists like Niki De Saint Phalle, Jonas Mekas, Pipilotti Rist, and Lily Van Der Stokker have also played a huge influence on me over the years and I still love them to this day.

How important is social media when it comes to sharing your work?
I enjoy using social media as a visual diary of my day – even if it’s just a story or two from the studio or a photo of Kira. I just do what I want to do with it and try to avoid any commercial pressure to use the platform in a way that doesn’t feel right for me.

Reflecting on your career to date, what do you recall as being your career highlight?
I worked on a series of paintings for a solo show in Italy two years ago called Fanciulla, which translates to Young Girl. It was inspired by an encyclopedia from the ’60s called, The Encyclopedia of the Young Maid, which I inherited from my mum, who inherited it from my Grandfather.

The show was made up solely of portraits of women, of course, and it was the first time I have exhibited my work in my home country of Italy after exhibiting in the UK, China, Japan, and Poland. It was a proud moment for me.

What’s next for you as we move closer to 2021?
I’m currently part of a few group shows, but I’d really like to work towards a new solo show.  With lockdown, it’s quite tricky to plan that far ahead but I’m preparing anyway, with the assumption that I will have a solo show sometime in the near future! Fingers crossed it’s sooner rather than later.