Sometimes you only find out many years later what an image has triggered in a person.
Recently, I received copies of the Italian book Un giorno… inaspettatamente by Dr. Giuseppe Melucci. My work "Feel Free" is featured on the cover.
Dr. Melucci had previously asked me if he could use this image for his book cover. I am always happy to support such projects – especially when art is not just used decoratively, but gains a deeper connection to the subject matter.
What touched me most about this is the story behind it.
Dr. Melucci had discovered my art years ago. Back then, not through "Feel Free," but through my work "Feuer–Wasser" (Fire–Water) on a fragment of the Berlin Wall.
The painting consisted of two dancing women. On one side, a woman in cool shades of blue – water. On the other, a woman in red – fire.
In this work, I was interested in the idea that opposites do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Fire and water seem incompatible at first. But they can also complement each other.
Especially on a fragment of the Berlin Wall, this thought was particularly important to me.
For a wall stands for separation.
My painting told of the opposite.
1. When a viewer recognizes something you yourself have put into it
In his letter, Dr. Melucci wrote that the female depiction on the Berlin Wall had touched him with its calm and serenity.
To him, it stood in contrast to the hardness of a wall that separates people.
That truly moved me.
As an artist, you work from a very personal inner feeling. You have a vision, a mood, and sometimes even a quite clear message.
But as soon as the painting leaves the studio, the perception no longer belongs to you alone.
Everyone sees something different.
And that is precisely why it is special when, years later, someone describes something that is very close to what you yourself wanted to express with the work.
2. “Un giorno… inaspettatamente”
The book by Dr. Giuseppe Melucci is titled Un giorno… inaspettatamente – roughly: “One day… quite unexpectedly.”
The text emerged from Dr. Melucci’s many years of work with women in breast diagnostics. He was interested not only in the medical journey from the initial examinations through to diagnosis and surgery, but especially in that emotional side which often remains invisible in everyday clinical life.
Un giorno… inaspettatamente tells of fear, change, and how a woman tries to find herself again in a new reality after such a life-altering event – both physically and mentally.
On the back cover, she describes a moment in front of the mirror. Her own image suddenly seems foreign to her. All the things that were previously important and had to be done lose their sense of necessity.
I found this passage very touching.
Perhaps also because many of my depictions of women deal with a similar inner field of tension.
Of strength, but not just strength.
Of vulnerability, without turning it into weakness.
Of femininity not as a surface, but as something very internal.
My work “Feel Free” was chosen for the cover.
And I had to think a little about how this title suddenly sounds different in this context.
Perhaps that is why this project touches me so much: as a doctor, Dr. Melucci tries to make visible what remains hidden behind a diagnosis. For many years, my art has also been interested not only in the outward appearance of a woman, but in what lies behind it – her inner world, her vulnerability, her strength, her soul.
3. Why my depictions of women keep appearing in medicine
It is not the first time my art has been linked to medical themes.
The Berufsverband der Frauenärztinnen und Frauenärzte e.V. (Professional Association of Gynecologists) has used my female motifs for quite some time at their congresses as symbolic imagery for topics in gynecology.
I find that very fitting.
Perhaps because medicine, on the one hand, must be very factual.
It is about diagnoses, examinations, and therapies.
But at the same time, it is almost always about a human being who, in that moment, is not just a patient.
Especially in gynecology, many very personal themes come together: body, femininity, motherhood, sexuality, aging, change, illness.
I do not believe that art can solve all of this.
But I very much believe that it can change the atmosphere.
A room can feel colder or warmer. A woman can feel only like a patient in it – or continue to be perceived as a whole person.
That makes a difference. And perhaps that is exactly a role that art can take on in medical spaces.
Especially in medical spaces, art can be more than decoration. You can find more about my projects and thoughts on this under Art for Medical Practices.
4. The woman as a symbol of the soul
I have been painting women for many years.
But for me, the woman has never been just a beautiful motif.
In my paintings, she often stands for something internal, for a symbol of the soul.
But also for sensuality, liveliness, self-confidence, and joy of life. And for the sensitive sides of a person.
Perhaps that is why my works resonate so frequently in medical spaces.
These spaces are often places where people do not want to or cannot be particularly strong.
One waits.
One hopes.
One might be afraid.
Sometimes, all it takes is something that reminds you for a moment of beauty, peace, or your own life outside of that room.
Perhaps an image does not need to do any more than that there.
➤ Learn more about this art movement: "Flowism – my art style of interconnectedness"
When a painting takes its own path
I find it almost a little astonishing how this story has developed.
Dr. Giuseppe Melucci discovers my work on the Berlin Wall years ago.
Later, a painting of mine becomes the cover of a book that deals with a very personal experience of illness and change.
As an artist, you cannot plan such things.
And that is exactly why it means so much to me.
I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Giuseppe Melucci for his trust and Professor Pietro Masafra for the kind exchange and support.
I wish for Un giorno… inaspettatamente that it reaches many people.
And for me, there remains the beautiful realization that a painting is sometimes on a journey much longer than you ever imagined.
