Giada Pisano - February 2025

1- A question that probably comes naturally to anyone who finds themselves in front of your works: why the Bic pen?

It is a very legitimate question. I have been asked it many times. The answer almost seems obvious to me, but it is probably not.

During the period of elementary school 1974/1978, it was the only system I had to escape from lessons, which I considered boring and difficult to follow. So I used the pen to draw whatever came to mind. But I did not draw in the sketchbook, which we used very little, with the related markers and crayons. The subject "drawing" was dedicated only one hour on Saturday, sometimes half an hour. A heresy for me. In fact, I almost always drew, so as not to be noticed, directly on the books. Not on the notebooks which were certainly checked more. I drew with the Bic pen. With the pen I drew in the only two books we had at the time. But to those who watched me, if there were anyone watching me, it seemed that I was taking notes with my pen. I don't remember being reprimanded for drawings in books, so I suppose only the notebooks were checked.

The pen was practically the means that allowed me to frequent the world of fantasy perpetually and with impunity.

As the years went by, I continued to draw any subject with a pen until I created a line so imperceptible that my drawings looked like prints. This was until the summer of 2009, when I drew the portrait of a Bic pen with a Bic pen. Subsequently giving birth to arms on this pen, animating it, dressing it and transforming it into anything. Just visit my website or my social media profiles to see these results.

Here. Since 2009 I have “sanctified”, I have given thanks to this very simple tool for having accompanied me for 50 years, having allowed me to overcome all the difficulties that a person can go through during the growth period. My drawings are my “Logbook” and the tool for “writing it” has always been her. The Bic pen.

Furthermore, with these drawings I have created a language. A language that is not always easy to read. Sometimes obscured by the aesthetic impact. A person who sees a pile of red caps, hundreds of caps, sometimes says: “What patience” “How beautiful. All in pen?” But there is much more behind it. That language I use to communicate concepts, feelings, criticisms, social problems.

2-How do your works come about? What impression do you try to make on those who observe them? And what impression do your works make on you?

I don't just make drawings of pens with pens. The pen genre is certainly the most fortunate and successful, but there are other works that come from inspirations I get from a chat with anyone, from shapes I see in the clouds, from shapes of stones worked by nature, from human behavior. If I can't create the work right away, I take notes and then plan its creation with the techniques I consider most suitable, without neglecting any material.

What I definitely don't want to inspire is indifference. I think it's a common attitude among artists.

Not all the works I do are born to give smiles, an emotion that I often like to stimulate. I try to leave a mark, to disturb, to make people think. Even if the work doesn't please, it doesn't matter. What matters to me is that it transmits something.

My works, the ones I manage to finish and that correspond to what I had in mind, give me satisfaction, they fulfill me and some of them excite me. Like the creation, transport and installation of the 5-meter bronze statue at Bosco Selene in Lanusei. It gave me a beautiful emotion, one of those that make you feel a lump in your throat. Seeing tracked vehicles, cranes and so many people gathered for my bronze statue.

3-Probably not everyone knows that your journey began many years ago, so much so that you have exhibited your works in various parts of Italy and abroad. But in the last period, in particular, you have given your town several artistic experiences. Tell us about the origin of these ideas and what the results of your project were.

The first exhibition I did was in 1990, a collective exhibition where I had exhibited some very ugly drawings. But they were pages of my "Logbook" and at the time I considered them important. Now they are more so.

A person who saw those drawings said: "I envy your courage!" This beautiful anecdote was reminded to me a few months ago. This courage has lasted over the years and I hope it has borne fruit.

In 2024 I donated to Lanusei the town an installation along Via Roma with a subsequent dinner in the window, the giant bronze placed at Bosco Selene that started the “Pop Art Arcaica” series and subsequent anthological exhibition at the Franco Ferrai Museum in Lanusei. A “Light” anthological since I had many other works to exhibit but not enough space. All things that had not yet been seen in the area.

The origin of this idea of ​​doing something for my town arose following the creation by some citizens of a chat. “Let's save what can be saved”

This chat was aimed at raising awareness among all citizens to do something for their town. Make it more dignified, flowery, beautiful. The only thing I could do was this.

I borrowed a beautiful shop window along the street and built a room with a table, chairs and various objects all covered with paper on which thousands of blue pen caps were printed, the result of a drawing of mine. I hoped that other artists would do it to make the street brighter, since too many shop windows were dark. I donated the sculpture with the bronze “Capo Tribù” to the town, always with the same hope.

Thanks to social media, the video of this sculpture arrived in Paris at the Bic headquarters. The outcome was a meeting and an exhibition at the Franco Ferrai Museum.

4-A critical evaluation of your art?

It is closely linked to originality. “Originality” is the most received compliment ever.

I am aware that the pen trend is my creation. There are many artists who draw with pens, making beautiful portraits or other subjects, but animated pens, put on and dressed, transformed into anything and that can perform any action, are things that I invented. Pop Art Arcaica was born together with my pen-shaped bronzes. I am truly happy to have been able to create things that had not yet been seen. So I thank this body that contains me and this little head that governs me, which have allowed me to achieve this important result.

5-What is the thing you care about most, excluding family affections?

There are more than one. My land. Nature and its rhythms. The time to contemplate it. The luck of still being healthy. The luck of being able to create things that you like. The luck of being able to travel. The awareness of being able to change your mind without fear.

6-Carte blanche: Is there a topic that is particularly close to your heart regarding your art, which is not discussed in interviews?

Unfinished works. Precisely because no one has ever asked me anything about unfinished works, I have never thought about the reason why they remained unfinished. So reflecting on this I answer by saying that unfinished works are certainly the result of works started during a transition phase and abandoned to start doing something else more attractive. For now I think this is one of the reasons why I have left several works half-finished.