Valeria Gasparrini
Artist, illustrator
About
Valeria Gasparrini ( Rome, 1964), was formed thanks to a rich contribution of artistic and literary experiences: classical studies, research in ceramics, painting, fresco, engraving, drawing from life; attended the three-year course of illustration at the IED, and was trained in the graphic engraved at the Stamperia del Tevere , in Rome. Today she works as an artist, as an advertising illustrator and freelance editorial, as a teacher of drawing, visual and illustration at Quasar Design University, the Academy of Fine Arts of L'Aquila ABAQ, the American University in Rome AUR. He draws live in theatrical performances, and realizes performances with stage machines of various nature that builds and animates on stage. As an artist he has participated in personal and collective exhibitions, and passionately dedicates himself to the creation of artist’s books, combining his remarkable illustrative nature with the infinite expressive possibilities of engraving techniques.
He has exhibited in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Faenza, Venice, Paris, Luxembourg, Rothemburg. Some of his works are part of permanent exhibitions, such as the ceramic work "Rain" at the International Museum of ceramics in Faenza, the artist book "How many irreplaceable lives", exhibited at the national library of Luxembourg, and its printed version exhibited at the Casa della Memoria in Rome.
They wrote about here
Daniele Scalise, Loris Schermi, Francesca Tuscano, Michèle Wallenborn, Devin Kovach, Sarah Linford, Gianluca Tedaldi. Valeria Bertesina. For interested people, I am writing to offer the highest recommendation for Valeria Gasparrini who has held two engraving workshops for the Rome Center of Architecture and Culture at Woodbury University which I direct. He guided the students' works, taking them from the initial drawings to the creation of the definitive prints and their possible display in an exhibition. I find her one of the most creatively contagious and inspiring people with whom I have had the opportunity to collaborate. Let me take the liberty of offering a few details regarding his remarkable abilities. To begin with, she is a very competent artist in her field. She is also generous in sharing her experience and does so with great enthusiasm. In the initial phase of the projects he offers numerous approaches, both experimental and conventional, with the aim of giving birth to works of art that can then be created on slabs. In the workshops we used zinc and copper plates, and the results were surprising. It featured field sketching exercises, complex mapping projects, and digital plate file translations. It has provided Woodbury with some of the most powerful and transformative learning experiences students have had in Rome; also in relation to what they do at home. Our students love her and she has been there for them every step of the way, teaching them techniques to achieve their creative goals. It is a magical moment when the students complete the drawings, prepare the plates, ink them working in their studio. And then they print them. This would not have been possible for us without Valeria's expertise. Thank you for the opportunity to offer a great recommendation for Valeria and I would be happy to discuss her merits further should you wish to contact me at my email: paulette.singey@gmail.c
Best regards Paulette Singley Woodbury University professor, Director of the Rome Center for Architecture and Culture
Illustrations
The illustration complements the text as only an image – or music – can do. It does not replace, does not repeat what the text already says but adds, deepens using a different language. The theoretical contents – they are defined conceptual, even if in my opinion the word does not make – are those that require more attention in being illustrated; in my opinion there is need of courage and experimentation to get out of the insidious streets of the caption, but the result largely repays the effort.
I am an illustrator animated by a great desire to tell. I remember little girl who leafed through the notebook of dedications of my mom (for girls it was customary to have a special notebook, with a beautiful cover maybe canvas, on which friends and relatives wrote a dedication or a wish, accompanied by a drawn image) and I immersed myself in this combined story of text and images sometimes naive, sometimes badly corrected, sometimes even performed on commission by the writer, sometimes to wonder what the design had to do with the dedication… but that’s where my desire to accompany the text to an image was formed. Illustrating, creating artistically, is what I do best.
editorial illustrations
I have worked as an illustrator for various publishing houses and various periodicals; I have made interesting projects and I have often challenged myself in the illustration of delicate and sometimes inflated themes; but I find these challenges full of meaning… talking about the disease, of death, of peace, of hope, of relationships is not easy, and it requires to go out a bit out of the chorus to make a different and interesting story, that enhances the text and the spirit that animates it.
In doing this I do not have a predefined technique; I like to combine a handmade base with digital interventions.
advertising illustrations
I have created advertising illustrations for newspapers, posters, brochures, websites; collaborating with numerous agencies. Often I was asked to first realize the layout, when it was necessary to make understand to approve to the customer a particular style or a technique out of the ordinary.
Projects
Here are collected projects that I have worked on but have not found a definitive outlet, or personal illustration projects that I am working on and that often arise from suggestions, ideas that come visiting an exhibition or going to see a show. They are free projects, so sometimes a little visionary; overbearing, and overbearing ask to be put on paper…
pop up illustrations
The pop up is a drawing that -literally- “jumps up”. It is a game of folds and tensions realized with the sheet of paper, which is activated by the action of opening the page give life (pop!) to a three-dimensional creation that from flat and closed opens, rises up and becomes a sculpture. By sculpture I also mean the chariot of Snow White with a lot of coachman and horses, as I saw in a wonderful book… The principles of pop up are simple and the materials poor: paper, glue, line and pencil… but as for the letters of the alphabet the combination of simple operations can give rise to something really unexpected. In publishing we mean by pop up book also a book that uses the simple mechanism of opening and closing windows, or the construction of a three-dimensional scene using the folds of the sheet. Again the action is simple, but the effect fascinating!