Why did you choose to paint animals?

Simply because I love animals, but I love them deeply. I consider dogs and cats that I have and that I've had as companions in life, that have followed me, everyday, faithfully and patiently. As the English poet Lord Byron said, dogs have “all the virtues of man, without his vices.” It's an unquestioned truth. It can seem stupid for those who do not love them, to make an emotional investment in an animal, but those who love them will surely be able to understand me. When I paint an animal on commission, I always do it with great respect. Although I'm painting them in human clothing and therefore in an ironic key, I always take care not to ridicule them, to maintain and enhance their dignity.

I paint an animal with the same care that I put into painting a human, seeking to capture its soul in its look. Given the strong feelings that dogs have towards their owners and the even stronger feelings of which they are objects, personally I am convinced that they have a soul. To paint animals, it is not sufficient to know how to paint. It is necessary to know the morphology, the origins, the temperament, the attitudes, precisely as you would in order to paint a human face. You have to get to know the subject personally, to speak to them, to observe their eyes, to read their look... Only then can you paint the soul of the subject, through their look.

For dogs and cats there is the same requirement: to capture what there is in their eyes.

I believe that my characteristic is a painting that is built through a perceptive process, suspended between real representation and imagination, where the aesthetic result that I want to reach is always and exclusively a visual emotion.

I've always believed that art should be usable wherever and by whoever and that it should not have to be relegated to niche areas like the galleries where it's seen by a small public. I've always painted, because I inherited a natural gift that has been handed down from generation to generation (I have in my family painters of the nineteenth century such as Chiodini, Pessina...) Even though I've studied various subjects (political sciences), I have always refined this innate gift, testing and studying (I've attended courses on painting, sculpture, scenery and art history at the academy of Brera).

When I was married, I amused myself by renting spaces in holiday resorts, where I sold my works, that spanned from frescoes to figurative works inspired by the renaissance.

"I've always followed my original idea. That is, I like to show my work in places other than galleries. A kind of travelling show that passes through furniture shops, golf clubs, book shops, hotels, banks, jeweller's, fur shops, restaurants, fairs… I wanted to get myself known! As my work is not the sort of thing that goes unnoticed, I think I managed it. In the last 8 years I've shown my work in prestigious stores and meeting places."

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