The human behind the artist (Interviews with artists living in Florence)

I am a story hunter. I believe people are forged out of the million stories which they experience and yet they only share a mere few of them outside of their soul, their mind, their inner self. Other people’s stories are precious and there is a great privilege to have someone grant you their most important memories and let you build a small part of history with glimpses of them.

I have embarked myself onto this quest, seeking the stories within the artist, their struggles and their emotions, trying to reveal their human nature which is usually concealed by their alien looking outside shell.

The stones that build the city of Florence are stained with the fears and hopes of all the artists that trusted to pass its gates. Florence is not a city anymore, but an artistic cliché, a place where artists aren’t necessarily born, but drawn to. Three years ago I was nothing more than a lost writer, who walked the streets of this city seeking for anything that could have satisfied my need to create. On a wintry evening, I found myself into a small studio space, surrounded by dozens of artists all craving for that same thing. Uncertain of my identity and place among them, holding a ten month old baby in my arms, I shook the hand of a painter who was about to change my life. Her story was my own and as she looked into my eyes as if into a mirror, she handed me the key to finding myself again.

The human behind the artist was born while driving back home, smiling and thinking what a beautiful thing passion is, but most of all, craving to find the hidden stories of the English speaking artists who pace Florence every day, searching for inspiration, contributing to this city’s wonders.

The pages of this book, will allow you to experience the behind the scenes lives of artists living in Florence. You will read about their inner fears, their struggle to create beauty and novelty into a world that often rejects most contemporary forms of art and that still clings onto the Renaissance period. These amazing emerging or accomplished artists chose to enrich Florence by expressing themselves in this city and I as a journalist and story hunter am here to present you the human behind their alien looking like artist side.