Glowing Darkness Print

Part of the series "The Darkness". "L'oscurità". The dark night, the abyss, a starless sky, the black hole and the bottom of the ocean, blindness, deafness, unconsciousness, darkness of the soul, of the world. These works explore the theme of darkness, non-figurative acrylic paintings with an emphasis on color. Each painting contains layers of color, not one piece is simply "black" or "dark", look at them carefully. The size of my artwork is relevant to my work. They show how I would like to share and express myself in the world and at the same time explain my subject choice. The works in this series are almost all small because painting them was like a declaration of intimacy, sharing a small secret without giving the viewer an overwhelming or crushing feeling. These works are the result of my reflections on how the world is reacting to the state of things created by the pandemic, spent first in Florence and then in America. They are also my response to a retreat I attended in the summer of 2021 called "The dark night of the soul", where I had the experience of walking in the woods on a dark night without any light. This exhibit is part one of three. Following this exhibit of “The Darkness” there will be “The penumbra” and to close “The Light”. "The dark night of the soul is a moment in which everyone privately and, in this historical moment, socially, finds oneself living isolated and without a profound meaning to their life. St. John of the Cross was the first who named his mystical crisis like so, with respect to believing and feeling God within himself. Today we are all called to give a profound meaning to our existence, entrusting ourselves to the God of the Presence, of the Here and Now, perennial, every moment, every instance of our life. This is the only Dogma that we can feel, experience, Now, in this moment that you are reading. To do this, we must absolutely accept the suffering and joy that this way of being in the world entails." - Gianmarco Meucci, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Nature Guide of the retreat “The dark night of the soul”