With an artist like Giuliana Collu, splitting the imaginary from the realistic immobility of things is not only possible, but obligatory. Never has artist been so eclectic and imaginative as to pour a totally colorful and vital expression on her works.

Territories still unexplored await the happy expansion of this artist from the unexpected and unpredictable creative vein and it is in his latest creations that we see the premises of increasingly innovative discoveries where the link with roots is nothing but a very solid reminiscence, without which the art of Giuliana Collu could not exist.

the art of “shaping” life

Put a rainy late spring afternoon, the desire for an exclusive jewelry for a special occasion, life, its thousand paths, your in which you see entering a luminous presence. It happened so a few years ago, the first time I met Giuliana, a fascinating creature with a strong sensibility, instinctively, to give form and content to what I was looking for. I keep that beautiful pendant that she created as a symbol of a precious friendship that, over time, has taken on important density and consistency.

When I was asked to tell Giuliana, I hesitated: for fear of not being objective in tratteggiarne the figure and the strong personality, but above all for the modesty that comes from limiting the feeling through the words.

To convince me the awareness that the good knows how to give you the tools and that the heart knows how to make you find the way and, after all, to manifest what animates us can only make more real.

Here I am, therefore, to recall our meeting with the same impulses of the time, when the cheerful green eyes of the unfamiliar “family” met mine, transmitting immediate warmth. In my factory I felt at home: the creations arranged everywhere they talked about her and a careful, inspired, refined and original art: design lamps, unusual shapes mirrors, sculptures inspired by nature and its wonderful colors, current while with the ancient flavor of our island: the blue of the sea, the red of our poignant sunsets, the golden sand, the warm colors of the earth, lush and full of charm.

Years have passed since that day and while we chat, I try hard to assume an attitude free from the affection that my closeness inspires. I observe her moving gracefully in her enchanted cosmos where clay loaves take shape and substance. In the background a relaxing music and the noise of the oven that cooks the still full forms of the energy of those skilled hands. She, kidnapped by creative inspiration, cuts, smoothes, carves, decorates and waits, waits to see the result of the umpteenth cooking. I observe her: modern Juno, as I often use to call her, elegant in her simple and communicative gestures, maternal like the Goddess who reminds me, in his welcoming and listening, delicate artist, custodian of a formidable gift: knowing how to give consistency to the sensations, to the intuitions, to the motions of the soul that derive from the profound observation of the universe that surrounds us.

An existence intensively spent giving love and looking for beauty, even when it is a difficult undertaking. As a child, in the native Assemini, at the workshop of uncles ceramists, he loved to manipulate the clay, drawing from it an instinctive pleasure that will accompany her becoming a very young woman and mother, soon maturing the awareness that through such a soft matter and ductile, he could tell the world through the eyes of his soul: magical and ancient, like the art of which he became a teacher.

So clay is increasingly connoted as a determining reason for life, especially in the delicate moments of growth, suffering, self-awareness. Solar spirit, combative and constantly evolving, refines the art of touching the soft “pasta”, having fun modulating the shapes, emphasizing the profiles and the density with plastic decorations and iridescent enamels. The technique and the creative instinct are amalgamated through its marked aesthetic taste. Experimenting and researching continuously, it opens up to the new and favors, when possible, the contamination resulting from contact with different cultures from the Sardinian one.

“The works I give life to are understood and appreciated abroad, outside the confines of my beloved land, precisely because of the emotional impact they transmit and which is independent of culture and its heritage. to the oriental world, thanks to the meeting that a few years ago I had with a Japanese artist with whom I tightened a strong bond of friendship, result from the harmonious exchange of knowledge, feelings, ideas, experiences, beyond the barrier of verbal language. “

As we speak, our cups of infused ginger perfume the kitchen, the same in which so many times the stories and confidences have made us more intimate. Meeting her has meant running into a soul sister, in whose eyes I often learned to mirror myself: I saw in her the serenity and joy of living, I understood that each one, if he listens to himself, especially when the pain and suffering they shape us, can be reborn stronger and wise, able to go to the bottom of their spirit without fear, being able to finally listen to the voice of the soul and give consistency to their dreams. And Giuliana knows what it means to go deep “It’s a magical process that is activated every time I create: I go in tranches, I catapult into another dimension, I can work for hours and hours, without stopping, immersed in a state of total well-being, in which I reload myself purified as in a sublime catharsis “.

An archaeologist, a ceramist: two women, two mothers, two lives, mine and hers. To unite a lot: apart from the deep affection, the passion for the ancient and the history that surrounds us substantial, the desire to meet the world with a curious and passionate soul, the pleasure of existing contemplating the essence and purity. Giuliana through her art can deeply express the meaning of life, of that Life that responds to all our actions. This ability makes me dear and precious. He smiles enigmatically while I ask, trying to take a “professional” attitude, “What is ceramic for you?” He answers and his gaze becomes magnetic and almost dreamy “The primordial contact with the earth, the roots, the symbols Think of the same tools, techniques, ancient decorations, I feel great emotion, I draw from the past magic and inspiration that I find whenever I immerse myself in my artistic world, where time and space have no more value. that I shape through the hands that make consistent what animates me. “I observe her while elegant moves in her environment of which I have learned to be part and I feel very strong the curiosity to ask, almost sensing the answer:” What would you say about the woman you are? today? “Pause, the gaze absorbed as he withdraws the cups, now empty” I would represent myself as a being in peace with his ego, which after several vicissitudes and so many stages early reached, has discovered the s a production of forty years, after having spent most of the time guarding the home, putting aside its most intimate aspirations. I understood when I grew up, what my true dimension was. Strong of the love of those around me and support my growth, I supported the propensity towards art, welcoming it as an extraordinary propeller of change and rebirth. I told myself “I start from myself”, feeling I can really do it! “.

Her know-how often becomes able to transmit, especially during the laboratories she loves to lead and in which she carries those who rely on her in the fascinating creative world, where technique orders and instinct leads, and in which the self has no boundaries.

Admiring his manifest serenity, I enjoy teasing her “What really annoys you?” It becomes severe and decisive, its limpid and deep look “I do not like to compromise, even if it can hinder or make the path of my existence more difficult”. It was late, the duty, the daily and home-made one calls us, “creative” worker bees, I have to stop playing the role of “interviewer”. Amused, I ask her “What will Giuliana do when she grows up?” “The ceramist – let’s both laugh, of taste – it is my life, it has been the cure of the ills that have marked it and the joy of the moments that have softened it: it is the luminous energy that makes the journey easier. We hug each other tightly and once again I feel the beneficial aura that surrounds her and I say to myself “Beautiful in my heart, it is important to feel its presence in this extraordinary journey called” LIFE “.