10 Questions with Francesca Busalla

Francesca Busalla is an Italian multidisciplinary artist working in acting, painting, dance, music, and singing. She grew up in a family of artists. These early influences motivated her to pursue her career initially as a hairstylist and graphic designer and subsequently in fine art. Her talent, her vision, and her innovative techniques have led her to quickly establish herself in the Italian and international cultural scene.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Francesca Busalla's abstract paintings depart from the merely physical and engage the spiritual realm. From the skin to the heart, from surface to depth, her works express her non-self.

"Painting is freedom. By painting, I free myself from the ego. I let life guide me. It's a cathartic process, during which I follow what my intuition suggests. I become a channel through which life creates.

I can't know what my next painting will be like, what technique I'll use, or what subject I will paint. It will depend on life, on the momentum, on what the universe wants me to express."

Busalla isn't beholden to a single medium or technique. Her purely intuitive approach led her to create a unique modus operandi. Her aestheticization of issues concerning important topics for society grace us like a contemporary oracle, met with an unprecedented level of awareness. The artist herself considers her artworks as a tarot reading:

"Every nuance, every line, every detail convey emotions and messages, which the unconscious immediately understands, and which gradually become conscious. Like a tarot reading, my paintings help the viewer heal the past to achieve the best."

Unbeknownst to the beholder, beneath the vital marks that pulse through the surfaces of Francesca's canvases lie strata of overpainting necessary for the painting to achieve its unique purpose.

"Each canvas has a life of its own, its own karma. Some of them are simple, others need more strata."

Looking at her paintings is an experience that goes beyond what meets the eye. By looking at the Canvas in person, the viewer becomes part of the momentum, of the religious experience the artist had when painting them.

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell us about your background. When did you start getting involved with visual arts and how?

My passion for art and visual arts started at an early age. I was born into a family of artisans, each an artist in his field. I loved spending my time observing and stealing their techniques and manual skills. From the age of six, despite the limitations imposed by village life in Sardinia, I had the opportunity to study dance, music, and singing. 
During my teenage years I wanted to attend art high school, but after parental opposition, I chose a different path, first studying languages, then becoming a hairdresser and opening a beauty center in Barcelona.  Shortly before the pandemic, no longer satisfied with my job, I trusted my intuition and switched my attention to graphic design and web design and set up an agency, however I felt dissatisfied and chained again - both professions, hairdresser and graphic designer, allowed me to create, but I was not free to express my voice, my soul. So, thanks to this new understanding and the inner transformation it prompted, I decided to leave everything else behind, and devote myself to what makes my heart sing: art, especially painting. When I paint I feel free, I abandon myself to the moment, I stop being Francesca Busalla and I become a channel through which life expresses itself.

How would you define yourself as an artist today and what is your personal aim?

Studying art as a self-taught – not English was the greatest gift that life has given me, allowing me to get in touch with my personal style and create, starting from my inner voice, from my deepest part, that makes me and my art unique.
When we realise our uniqueness we go beyond the skin and get to the heart, transcend the judgments related to race, religion we let go of all our discrimination and accept our and others' dignity. As for my purpose as an artist, it is to constantly strive in search of truth, to reach a high intellectual level and a growing mastery of the expressive potential to create in a profound way, to innovate and to arouse emotions, to return to the essence and the essential.

What role does the artist have in society in your opinion

I believe artists act as a mirror on society, for better or worse. Through their vision of the world they can create emotion – amazement, shock, disgust or anger. When artists take risks, break the mold and push themselves to present that vision they communicate at the deepest level and can indirectly incite change.

As a multidisciplinary artist, what is your creative process like? Where do you draw inspiration from and how do you translate it into your work?

I take inspiration from everything around me in the physical and metaphysical world. The creative process varies according to the discipline. I often get inspiration for poems while driving, and my songs usually arise from a strum of the guitar.
When I paint, on the other hand, I split from the world, I live 100% in the moment. In this case, the artistic process is more important than the result itself, I do not seek the image but the essence. I don't choose the subject to paint, the technique or the colors in advance, I let life guide me, in a cathartic process. I place the canvas in front of me and thank it for choosing me as a means to achieve its goal of making manifest forms and images already present in the essence from which all things originate. I don't try and put messages in my work, I make the work and see what message is expressed. Some works are ‘simple’ in one or two hours and are finished, while for the more complex ones it takes weeks before I feel they are ‘finito’.

You work with several different techniques, like acting, painting, dance, music, and singing. What is your preferred medium of choice, the one you feel is closest to your heart?

I love all the disciplines that I practice, I can't choose only one because they are closely linked to each other, growing up and improving in one discipline helps me improve in the others, allowing me to strengthen my freedom of expression. For example I recently painted one of my songs: ‘Un rêve a deux’. When I learn a new dance step, I repeat the same movement as I paint and marvel at the shapes that come to life. I am experimenting with various techniques that combine dance and painting, to immortalize movement in a static and eternal moment, a frozen instant of vital energy in action.

What messages do you want to convey with your art? 

Each work has its own message. I have dealt with various topics: love, transformation, infinity of life, synergy of opposites and so on. The choice of messages is not entirely aware. When I try to paint a certain subject and deal with a certain topic I’m dissatisfied and I superimpose another layer of paint. When I let my subconscious guide me, I am confident results will follow, not so much for the aesthetics but for the message. I can't know what the next work will be and what themes they will deal with, but I'm sure it will be the right message, what my soul wants to express and what people need.

What is the most challenging part of your work? And what is the most enjoyable?

The first is letting go of my works of art. I feel a deep bond with each of them, I love to look at them, study them, understand them. When I have to let them go, I feel that they no longer belong to me, my journey with them is over, they are ready for the world, a little part of me goes with them. Another reason I can't let go of the works is that sometimes I feel they are never going to be complete, after all they are a mirror of my inner world in development.
The other difficult but at the same time pleasant part is solitude, being with myself, getting to know myself through my art. To feel my deepest emotions I need to be alone and venture into my inner world, listen to my heart, reflect on the world around me and then rely on life and release the emotions on the canvas. Another very enjoyable part is the exchange with other creative minds.

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with or incorporate in your practice?

Absolutely yes, beyond the experiments with dance and painting, I've started to study and experiment with light. I was born on June 21, the solstice and thus, the brightest day of the year. All over the world since ancient times monuments have been erected to celebrate this day that also involve light, Stonehenge, the Sphinx and the pyramids at Giza. Because of this bond, I feel compelled to pay homage to light in my own way, just as I did with stones.
I am currently exploring some concepts of De Luigi and Fontana's spatialism, concepts that are already present in some of my works, but that I want to understand and delve into more deeply, the dematerialization of the work of art, the union of color, sound and space.

What is your opinion of the growing importance that the digital world has on contemporary art? Did you take part in any online exhibition or experiment with NFTs?

I love the digital world and I see the potential of NFTs. In fact in the past I’ve curated not only my personal projects but also those of the clients of my agency. The digital world is a great help for artists, it allows them to make their voices known globally. This is no small thing, if we think that until a few decades ago the voice of many creatives was heard only after their death. Technology also allows us to experiment with new forms of art, making art more accessible. However, I believe that non-digital works of art should be admired live in museums or galleries. This is the only way to appreciate the details that make them unique and inimitable.

And lastly, what are you working on right now and what are your plans for the future? 

Right now I am splitting my time between painting and music. I have an art exhibition in early 2023 and will be launching an NFT project soon afterwards. Musically I am working on my first album and an accompanying book of poetry. Regarding the future I feel my time is better spent creating than contemplating, life is too magical and unpredictable!