The Mariotti family lived next door to my friends Joan and Fred in the via Santo Spirito appartment . This was a lovely old building with high cielings and had those steep Stone stairs made some centuries ago. Joans Sunday evening book group usually had people interested in books, but at times outsider's were welcome to visit. I think that is how i met Mario and his wife who was a ballerina. At the time i was a university student reading literature and dabbling in Art and Mario was a "real" institution because he taught at the Accademy of Art in piazza San Marco.
It was after our meeting in the book group when he invited people to come and see his Atelier which was off Borgo San Jacopo. He had a very charming open attitude and when we did go to visit him in his work shop ,he gleefully explained his conceptual theater and various other créations because he believed Art was an exchange of ideas and he wanted it to be Action packed and " do things".
"Animani" is infact a series of animals created by painting his hands and expresses what an animal would look like. He had pottery and a lot of other items he showed us.
It was 1984/85 and I used to work in the center of Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in a shop as a sales woman and i asked Anna Ricci the owner's daughter who worked there if she was interested in exhibiting some art works in her window . Anna was in her early twenties like the rest of us girls working there. We were five or six English speaking sales people working there at the time.
I wondered if she wanted to see his work because i thought it would be a good idea to use his sculptures in the shop Window .... this idea of mine didnt happen, but Anna did meet Mariotti because she was interested in creative things herself. . The good that came from my idea was that from then on , when ever I met Mr Mariotti in the street around his area , he would offer me a cup of coffee and a friendly chat. We would talk about Art.
I was in awe of some one like him and he could see that .... and i really appreciated his considering me an artist because at the time i doubted it very much. One day he said something very important which changed my attitude towards creativity. He was laughing at my reverance while saying .... "Art is "Work" like any other work" it isnt inspiration! you cant wait for it to happen .... This was a new way of viewing creativity , because until then i thought i could create when i was in the mood to do it, but his attitude was : "Work on it anyway, even if you think it is all wrong .... or if it isnt the right day to be doing it. This attitude also took off the individualistic -selfish attitude artists usually have .... in thinking that they are Superior because they are doing something special !
Perhaps his attitude of solidarity with other creative people came from the fact that he worked with Young people ; He had projects he was working on in the US and he told his students that he would trasport these to the US as part of "his" Art work. He told me i could participate in this by giving him some art work which would then go to decorate the walls of some restraunts in the States. I thought this was a brilliant idea and gave him a few works which should be living there now, in the US where he put them. I couldnt care less if people saw my name in the papers in a vernissage publicity .... for me it was important that my work entered peoples and a cities real life Stream.
Today you can see his series of "variations on a theme" based on the facade of the Santo Spirito Church and these you can visit in the coffee shop in the Piazza Santo Spirito called "Cafe Ricchi" He was not satisfied with how things had been done there ,but i am glad that these pictures are in the piazza and not in some museum where you would have to que up to see them.
One funny episode was when one summer Mariotti and family had saved Joan's dog Sofie, when the house sitter had left town without telling anyone. Joan had then contacted me and Sofie was left with me and my two cats.
Eventually as i I lived in an other area of Florence and i came to the city center much less, i met him less often .... one day , It was probably the last time i would see him around. He wasnt looking at all well, and i felt a sadness in him which worried me. He said he had experimented with using a coffin as a little boat , sailing down the Arno. He asked me if i was going to live in Florance for the rest of my life. It was a strange question. I was trying very hard to finish Uni. but couldnt stay on for the rest of my life even if i wanted to (because of visa's to be renewed etc). "I dont know what i'll do" i said. Later on when i heard he had died, i thought perhaps he was thinkin of allowing his friends a special place in his studio, but what he had had in mind remained a mystery.
It was after our meeting in the book group when he invited people to come and see his Atelier which was off Borgo San Jacopo. He had a very charming open attitude and when we did go to visit him in his work shop ,he gleefully explained his conceptual theater and various other créations because he believed Art was an exchange of ideas and he wanted it to be Action packed and " do things".
"Animani" is infact a series of animals created by painting his hands and expresses what an animal would look like. He had pottery and a lot of other items he showed us.
It was 1984/85 and I used to work in the center of Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge in a shop as a sales woman and i asked Anna Ricci the owner's daughter who worked there if she was interested in exhibiting some art works in her window . Anna was in her early twenties like the rest of us girls working there. We were five or six English speaking sales people working there at the time.
I wondered if she wanted to see his work because i thought it would be a good idea to use his sculptures in the shop Window .... this idea of mine didnt happen, but Anna did meet Mariotti because she was interested in creative things herself. . The good that came from my idea was that from then on , when ever I met Mr Mariotti in the street around his area , he would offer me a cup of coffee and a friendly chat. We would talk about Art.
I was in awe of some one like him and he could see that .... and i really appreciated his considering me an artist because at the time i doubted it very much. One day he said something very important which changed my attitude towards creativity. He was laughing at my reverance while saying .... "Art is "Work" like any other work" it isnt inspiration! you cant wait for it to happen .... This was a new way of viewing creativity , because until then i thought i could create when i was in the mood to do it, but his attitude was : "Work on it anyway, even if you think it is all wrong .... or if it isnt the right day to be doing it. This attitude also took off the individualistic -selfish attitude artists usually have .... in thinking that they are Superior because they are doing something special !
Perhaps his attitude of solidarity with other creative people came from the fact that he worked with Young people ; He had projects he was working on in the US and he told his students that he would trasport these to the US as part of "his" Art work. He told me i could participate in this by giving him some art work which would then go to decorate the walls of some restraunts in the States. I thought this was a brilliant idea and gave him a few works which should be living there now, in the US where he put them. I couldnt care less if people saw my name in the papers in a vernissage publicity .... for me it was important that my work entered peoples and a cities real life Stream.
Today you can see his series of "variations on a theme" based on the facade of the Santo Spirito Church and these you can visit in the coffee shop in the Piazza Santo Spirito called "Cafe Ricchi" He was not satisfied with how things had been done there ,but i am glad that these pictures are in the piazza and not in some museum where you would have to que up to see them.
One funny episode was when one summer Mariotti and family had saved Joan's dog Sofie, when the house sitter had left town without telling anyone. Joan had then contacted me and Sofie was left with me and my two cats.
Eventually as i I lived in an other area of Florence and i came to the city center much less, i met him less often .... one day , It was probably the last time i would see him around. He wasnt looking at all well, and i felt a sadness in him which worried me. He said he had experimented with using a coffin as a little boat , sailing down the Arno. He asked me if i was going to live in Florance for the rest of my life. It was a strange question. I was trying very hard to finish Uni. but couldnt stay on for the rest of my life even if i wanted to (because of visa's to be renewed etc). "I dont know what i'll do" i said. Later on when i heard he had died, i thought perhaps he was thinkin of allowing his friends a special place in his studio, but what he had had in mind remained a mystery.
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