ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Rosanna Martella

I am a sculptor and painter, born in 1947 in the medieval city of Campobasso, central Italy. I knew from my early childhood that I wanted to be an artist. My father, a police officer, and my mother, a home maker/entrepreneur, allowed me to pursue my love of art. At the age of fourteen, I entered the art school Liceo Artistico in Pescara, a city along the Adriatic Coast. Here I received the foundation of my art education through the study of Life Drawings, Descriptive Geometry, Sculpture, Anatomy and Art History, among other subjects and art technique classes.

In 1968, I received my certificate to teach art in Italy. I then studied for two years at the D’Annunzio Free Abruzzese University, a school for Architecture. In 1972, I married and moved to Philadelphia, Pa. Over the course of the next 8 years, I worked at several architectural firms and began to raise a family. Now, with three children grown and educated, I am free to pursue my artistic inspiration, and recent years have been a prolific period in painting and sculpture.

Although I find enjoyment in painting, my true love and passion lies in creating sculptures. By creating a peace, I pour myself, my feelings and emotions into it. My favorite part of the sculpting process is in the beginnings, when the initial shape of the sculpture is taking form. It is such an energizing and almost therapeutic process, and for me it is a necessity in life. Art is a liberating tool.

I begin a sculpture by constructing and welding an armature to provide support for the clay. I then create the initial sculpture out of clay (for the large sculptures) or wax (for the smaller ones). Once I have sculpted the preliminary piece to is completion, I work with my local foundry to see the product through a finished bronze peace.

From the beginning of my sculpting career, and trough to today, my subjects have mainly consisted of human forms. My sculptures and bas-reliefs paces take on a true-to-life appearance. They range in size from 3 to 22 inches and are usually cast in bronze. The inspiration for most of my sculptures comes from real people, photographs that I see and positions that I enjoy in my personal yoga practice. My sculptures have realistic bodies and faces, and I feel that detail in the face lends an important characteristic to the personality of each peace.

Sculptures is my first love maybe because endures for centuries or millennium. I do think at the fact that after I am gone from this plane of existence, my work of art will continue to live here and give the feelings that I felt in me at the moment that I create it. That moment lives on even after my body is gone.

As a result of my appreciation for Mandala images, many of my paintings are circular in shape, My design are abstract and usually consist of elliptic lines and repeating patterns. The center of the painting may consist of a human figure. The colors of my paintings are always strong, bright, bold and texture is occasionally added.