Lorena D’Ercole is a contemporary artist who has created a new dimension in the relationship between the work of art and its owner, inventing the coded painting. She tells us how her idea was born and how she puts it into practice, always following her heart, her soul and the energy that reveals itself in her brushstrokes.
You have debuted as an artist relatively recently.
It all started in Bali, Indonesia, when I was at a turning point in my life, in the phase in which I felt the strong need to transform the baggage that I had accumulated along my journey, even with pain, into something that would help me fulfil myself, without depending on anyone else. Thanks to a friend, or rather, a spiritual sister, I took the brush in hand. From there, many inner wounds healed and many channels that had been unexplored up to that moment opened up
What does painting mean to you?
On a surface level, we could talk about emotions; on a deeper level, every painting is a part of me. I do not have children, but, every time I finish a painting, I feel I am giving life to something, in a certain sense generating, giving birth to something that surpasses my initial idea. It is an unconditional relationship, like love for a family member. In this sense, I am not guided by reason; so much so that, while I am painting, sometimes I have to stop to understand what I have done.
So, is it the demon?
Yes, I feel an energy that is greater than myself and makes my fingertips burn. And I lose two to three kilograms while painting a picture. In this respect I can relate with the thoughts of André Gide, who posited the divine nature of inspiration, which makes the artist a simple intermediary between the work and that heavenly demon. The canvas is finished when I feel it is finished. And when it is finished, I would not change a single dot on the i: just as nothing can be added to a tree or a flower, so it goes for a work of art that I feel as mine. Again, it is a completely irrational path. To this, however, we must add a component that I find indispensable, which is the energetic power that my works acquire. We know that art, since its birth, is destined to arouse emotions; however, my art is close to icons, therefore a window of spirituality that gives strength. It is precisely from this that the idea of coded paintings was born, because I decided to govern this energy.
What does ‘coded painting’ mean for you? What codes do you use?
The canvas, before painting, already has a soul. But it has no strength. My idea of codifying a painting comes from the desire to guide the energy it conveys and acquires in the desired direction. What I call a ‘code’ manifests itself in the key words that I write on the canvas before I begin to paint. Since I often work on commission, as the great masters of the past used to do, I elaborate a personalized code that will dialogue with the sensitivity of the future owner. Art, especially contemporary art, has an economic value and is measured through that. On the contrary, my idea of personalizing the work of art through the code increases the emotional value, the connection between the client and the work of art. However, I do not work only with the end client, as, for example, in the case of an important fashion brand that commissioned me to create a coded corporate painting, but also with those who want to gift my paintings to friends and relatives with their best wishes.