Subsign: First, can you tell us a few things about yourself?
Carmine: Hello, I’m Carmine Bellucci and I am an artist from Italy. Very strange chap walking the streets with curious eyes locked up in his studio trying to get his hands dirty. Many times he manages to do that.
Subsign: What was your childhood like? Do you think your childhood experiences have influenced your present creative endeavors?
Carmine: I was born and raised in a South Italian city called Foggia. Pretty dodgy one. I remember my childhood spent running after a ball. In fact I spent many of my childhood hours playing football, I was a good player and being quite weird, this was the only chance for me to get accepted. In the early days it was pretty much that, not much drawing, not much art. When I grew up I befriended a graffiti artist and that is when I got infected with the art bug, never being able to get rid of it ever since.
Subsign: What did you want to be as a grown up?
Carmine: A professional football player, of course.
Subsign: What does your workstation look like?
Carmine: Quite a messy place. But it’s a chaos with a hidden order, everything is in that place for a particular reason and I can see right away if something has been moved from where it’s supposed to be. I have an old wooden small table on which I do my doodles and drawings before getting ready to paint. There is an easel, full of paint blots and drips. My small moving table with all the paints, brushes and stuff. I am very proud of it, I built it myself out of pieces of wood. Not a big space but quite cozy and comfortable enough to be my spiritual den.
Subsign: Do you have a work style? How would you describe it?
Carmine: My work style is a delicate balance between instinct and awareness of what I am doing. I don’t like letting things go without knowing how to control it, but at the same time it is extremely important to me that my works have a touch of freshness and spontaneity. Like jazz musicians you have to own your language in order to play with that freely. That is what I try to do. I developed my own visual vocabulary that I use according to the moment, to the space and to what affects me in that moment.
Subsign: Can you share with us how your creative process works?
Carmine: I tend to have a strict routine. Sport taught me the importance of discipline and constant work. I usually start seated at my desk, starting to draw with a pen on scraps of paper. It’s important that this moment is free from any constraints or thoughts. I try at this point to put down ideas, intuitions and inspirations in a visual way.
For me drawing is a way of thinking and making connections. When things start to get a sense, in terms of composition and meaning I build up details and define what I am going to paint. I almost never colour my sketches, they are just a guideline for my painting which I want to be as free as it can be without losing awareness and consistency. As I start painting I project a colour atmosphere with my mind and simply follow that along the process.
Subsign: What is your favorite work you have done so far?
Carmine: My best work will always be yet to come.
Subsign: Who do you follow for inspiration?
Carmine: Being Italian and having studied classics my primary inspiration is classical art and all art coming from ancient civilisations. Greek and old Mediterranean art have always held an important role in my background. They still can be strong, powerful and incredibly synthetic in communicating ideas and messages. There is some form of spirituality to it that I absolutely want to be in my works as well.
Also modern art inspires me a lot, the elegant lines of Jean Cocteau and the power of colour coming from Matisse are so fascinating to me. Another big source of inspiration for me is Italian culture and lifestyle that I always try to absorb in order to get in my works.
Subsign: What advice would you give to someone starting out in the creative field of work?
Carmine: To be passionate about what you’re doing. There will be people who will bring you down, moments in life that will almost break you. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and understand who you want to be. If you have passion, you will be stronger than all the obstacles. You will stay up at night to study the masters, you will be eager to know more about what’s happening around, you will look everywhere to draw inspiration, you will be driven by that invisible force that keeps the flame burning.
Subsign: If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Carmine: Making days longer.
Subsign: Can you recommend a book, a song and a movie, for our readers?
Carmine: I remember that when I was at the primary school we had some people coming and offering some books to us young students. Among all books I picked up Flaubert’s “Memoirs of a madman”. It stayed with me years and years with me never reading a single page of it. When I started reading it I was in a house near the sea and the story, the words and the sweet nostalgic writing style were absolutely captivating. I still read some pages of it from time to time.
A song is always difficult to recommend. Well, I would go for an Italian artist I’m really into at the moment. Luigi Tenco’s “Vedrai” is magic.
I haven’t seen many movies recently, they don’t seem to please me enough to keep me seated. I would instead recommend the works of Agnes Varda. I watched “Along the Coast” many times. Another movie would be Paolo Sorrentino’s “The hand of God”.
Subsign: If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what special occasion would you choose?
Carmine: It must be during the summer, by the sea with funny music at the beginning and late in the night becoming more sophisticated. It must be a party when people must feel free to dress as they wish, to be whatever they are. It should be a party of laughter, dance and good food. No phone allowed, just people, just talking and smiling…and the poetic sound of clinking and tinkling silverware and plates.
Subsign: What famous people would you invite to the party and why?
Carmine: I would like to have at the party one of my heroes, Paolo Sorrentino, the art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon, the chef Giorgio Locatelli and the Arctic Monkey’s singer Alex Turner… well at this point all the band mates are invited! Ah… almost forgotten… also the actors Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. That would be memorable!!
Thank you, Carmine, for being a part of our Spotlight!
If you know an artist that should be in the spotlight, contact us at teodora@subsign.co.
For more of Carmine‘s work, you can follow his work on the links: Carmine on Instagram, Carmine on Pinterest, Carmine on Behance, Carmine on Facebook.
