Amelie Mancini: The Pangs and Joys of Attachment
Big Bad Wolf. Watercolor on paper. 2022.
Dansons Rions. Watercolor & color pencil on paper.
Departure Hall. Watercolor and pencil on paper. 2022.
Artist Amelie Mancini.
Driving Through The Night. Watercolor on paper. 2021.
One Week Left. Watercolor on paper. 2021.
Pool Court. Watercolor & pencil on paper. 2022.
Room Womb Tomb. Watercolor on paper. 2021.
Website: www.ameliemancini.com / Instagram: @ameliemancini
Born and raised in Lyon, France, and now based in New York City, painter and textile designer Amelie Mancini explores the pangs and joys of attachment: love, connection, grief, loneliness, longing. Each painting is an attempt to recover a memory or a dream, to bring to paper a glimpse of her mental landscape.
How did your creative journey begin?
I had a very creative and happy childhood, spent playing dress up and building spaceships and robots out of bits and bobs, writing comics with my brother and sister, making my own clothes, inventing cakes, painting with my grandmother… In my family it seems everybody is either a doctor or an artist, so it’s always been there for me. My parents really encouraged all three of us to explore our creativity and follow that path, even though they were also worried about things like financial stability of course, which led to me going to school for design instead of fine arts, which seemed like a more reasonable choice at the time. My brother and sister also became artists, he’s a musician and she’s a comics author and illustrator.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Finding inspiration starts with doing something that will fill up my tank and make me feel energized. It can be a visit at the Met, a walk through the Brooklyn botanic garden, or listening to a really great song while I’m driving to the studio, but more often than not when I’m stuck I just lie down for a while and let my brain relax and something will pop up. Trying a new medium or a new brush also helps! I love getting lost in the process and entering a flow state, then my thoughts finally get quiet and my hands can take over.
How has your work evolved over the last few years?
The last few years have been really transformative for me, first with becoming a mother in 2016, which shook me to my core… I was full of unrealistic ideas about what life with a baby would be like (just paint while she naps!), and the reality was much different, both harder and more joyful than anything I could have imagined. It led to me closing my print-cut-and-sew textile business I had been running for 5 years and pivot to freelance design work, because I needed my schedule to be more flexible. Then in 2021 my mother passed away from cancer and that led to another seismic change in both my life and my art practice. Losing her was brutal and devastating, but it also gave me a wake up call - I decided to go back to painting, the “unreasonable” career path I had not taken, because it felt like the most important thing I could do for myself then. I fell in love with watercolor, the way the paint is carried by the water, the way color is built layer by layer, the way the pigments move on the paper, and I started a whole series of works on paper about grief and love, that I’m just now completing.
As far as the impact of the pandemic, my kids were 2 and 3.5 in March 2020 and getting through lockdown in a small apartment in NYC without any help or break was basically day by day survival. There was no time to work, paint, or even just be alone. It was a very intense period that led to significant mental and physical exhaustion, that I still don’t think I’ve fully recovered from.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?
In the morning I head to the studio right after dropping off my kids at school. I usually do some work on the computer first - admin, emails, freelance design work, etc. Then I paint, which I do very slowly, with a lot of staring and thinking. I work in layers and so I’m always thinking ahead at what the next layers will be. I find music or podcasts really distracting so I usually work in complete silence. Then at 4pm it’s time to leave and pick up my kids! Always feels too short of a day, but that’s the season of life I’m in right now. I do miss the days of working 12 hours days at the studio, I don’t get too many of these anymore.
Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?
My grandmother had a big impact on me, she discovered painting late in life and it brought her so much joy and fulfillment. She would paint with me, talk about art and take me to museums as a kid, and I still think of her all the time when I’m in the studio. If I ever complained that I had messed up my drawing she would say “you can’t mess up a drawing, maybe it just wants to be something else, and you have to figure out what that is” - a valuable lesson in letting go and trusting the process!
I’ve also loved reading Anne Truitt’s books about her life as an artist, her experience of motherhood and aging… She writes beautifully, I felt so much kinship with her.
When I was younger I had so much internalized sexism, I only admired male artists. Becoming a mother changed that somehow. Now I only want to hear about women and their perspectives, I’ve had enough of the men, haha.
How has social media impacted your art career?
I started using Instagram in 2011, and grew very quickly to a fairly large following, which was incredibly gratifying. I would post about something I had made, and it would sell within minutes. I loved engaging with people on the app, meeting other artists, getting my work out into the world for free, bypassing the gatekeepers… Over the years, Instagram changed completely, and I don’t recognize the platform anymore. It’s become very dispiriting to post on there, and I often go weeks without posting anything. I treat it more like a portfolio at this point. I miss the old instagram, but I’ve also moved on from the desire to share so much about my life. At the same time, I still love discovering new artists and small brands on there, so for better or worse I’m still on the app. And I don’t have TikTok, I don’t think my brain could handle it.
What are your future goals and aspirations?
I’ve learned that I have to protect my time in the studio, because no one else will. There’s always going to be something else that requires my attention, that needs to be taken care of. If I don’t make painting a priority, it will not happen. By default I tend to take care of everyone else first, and myself last, and that is not a healthy way to live. If I don’t make it to the studio for a few days, I get really depressed and irritated. As my kids get older, it is getting easier, and I feel like I’m reconnecting with the old me, which is really nice. So I’m trying to be my own advocate more. It’s important.