Memories by the sea

There is an indelible memory of the sea in my life

An island in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ischia, the night in late summer and we cold teenagers lying on the sand watching the stars.
There wasn’t the sun burning our skin but a powerful and bright moon, there wasn’t the noise of the people, the smell of protective cream, the sand raised by the children’s run.
Nature in the darkness of the night, almost silent and very intimate.
We talked about our plans and dreamed of a great future and incredible journeys, while the sound of the waves forced us to raise our voices.

The sea seemed to encourage us and push us to dare.

There was electricity in the air and a feeling of beauty given by the perfect moment.
I still remember the smell of jasmine and salt and all of us talking.
Sixteen years and the sea that made us feel brave and invincible.
My sea was a push towards the world.
The sea in adolescence makes us all happy.
I wonder what your sea is instead.
I wonder how much you love the sea too, or if you’re indifferent to it.
It is always beautiful to read everyone’s experiences at sea, they are all different, even if we have been in the same sea.
Because everyone reflects their happiness and unhappiness in the sea. As if it were a personal mirror.
Surely everyone has a memory of the sea, no one is exempt from that.
It may have been only a few days’ holiday, but sooner or later the sea has touched everyone’s life.

I was born in a seaside town and the sound of the waves is part of my most remote memories.
I’ve always loved and hated the sea.
Because it tires me, it annihilates me, because the salt burns my skin, because I don’t trust the waves of the sea.
Yet it attracts me like a mermaid.

And it repels me, so much so that I went to live far from the sea, but not from the water.
In this time of lockdown, I’ve often thought of the sea.
I closed my eyes during the day and focused on the smell and even the taste of the sea.
Somehow I went back to childhood and calmed down.
Because the sea is amazement and play and affects everyone.

Because there’s no such sea as the other

Italy, where I live, is surrounded by the sea except in the northern part that borders Europe.
I have known the Adriatic, which is the sea of my childhood together with the Ionian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, which is the sea of maturity.
The Adriatic Sea is heavier and oilier than the Tyrrhenian Sea. It has a very intense scent and deep colours. The Ionian from my memory is perfumed, wavy and cheerful.
But the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Sardinian Sea are more transparent, light, salty, with incredible colors.
Every sea has its algae, its fauna, its traditions, its stories.

The sea is ancient, and belongs to all of us

Even if we weren’t born at sea.
Because from the sea they came to conquer the land, from the sea people fled persecution, in the sea some religions baptize their children, from the sea we nourish ourselves.
The sea is the place to start from and to land.
The sea is synonymous with freedom and discovery, the sea is adventure, it is putting oneself at stake and remaining humble in the face of its beauty and danger.
Over the years I have lived by the sea and I began to love it in the cold seasons, when it always seems angry.
I have dedicated few drawings to the sea, because I no longer go to the sea, I am not relaxed.
I love it, but I can’t stay there for long.

The deep sea of Lucio Dalla

A great Italian singer and poet, Lucio Dalla, in one of his songs about the sea, says that we all descend from fish.
As if our ancestors had survived climate change by breathing and communicating in the water.
It is a really beautiful idea, because in fact where there is water there is life and it is not difficult to think that we all come from water.

Maybe we are happy at sea because we remember our ancestral past. And we feel free and perfect in our true element.

The fabric that reminds us of the sea

Remembering the past, it was inevitable to think about creating scarves dedicated to the sea.
The fabric imprints memories and thoughts that affect us all.
I am convinced that my creations are part of everyone’s life, because they tell situations that are really common to each of us.
The sea full of people playing, diving and talking. A sea with waves, we don’t know whether they are caused by the sea itself or by people waving the water.
This is the drawing that I then turned into a scarf. It’s a graphic sea, ideal. Nothing realistic, just a memory in motion.
I made from that design a large scarf that can also be used as a pareo, to close the circle on the idea of the sea.
The scarf is now in the hands of a collector who lives by the sea.
Then I created a small collection of three scarves with seahorses, a really deep and unknown sea, yet transparent and illuminated.

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but almost all of them went to places by the sea, by collectors who live by the sea.
I imagine these collectors at sunset, on the seashore, wrapped in cloth, relaxing with the lapping of the waves.
I imagine their well-being, and all the sea passing through their thoughts and dreams.
Because that’s how I see the wearer. Souls with a deep contact with the element water. Empathic, relaxed, harmonious souls.
If you are curious, there are two scarves dedicated to the sea in my shop, one inspired by a song and another inspired by a film.
Both the song and the movie are among my favorites. And I’m sure you’ll love them when you want to discover them. The green ray scarf, a drawing from which I then drew the scarf, talks about summer and the sea and participated in an exhibition in a seaside town.
Do you see it? The sea always returns, inexorably, to bathe thoughts, words and scarves.
You too, I am sure, have hundreds of things to tell about the sea.