How to make your piece of art – with Carlos Verdini

A couple of days ago when I opened my facebook early in the morning, the image on the top of my page was a truly piece of art, something that instantly reminded me of brothers campana’s work. I clicked on it to see it bigger and, wow, it was really amazing! It wasn’t brothers Campana’s work though, but Carlos Verdini’s.

Carlos is a friend of mine from Architecture & Urban Planning School and although he ended up being an urban planner, he without a doubt has an eye for home decoration. What an eye! But this is not a surprise to me. He loves photography and poetry, what else could you expect from a beautiful soul but art?!

Well, as soon as I saw the picture I asked him to tell me a little bit more about his inspiration and how he actually made it happen.

“getting inspiration from somebody else’s artwork it’s not a crime at all. What are good ideas for if not to be replicated and transformed? They are like offsprings. There’s nothing more rewarding for an artist than having his/her artwork as font of inspiration.” 

Carlos’ artwork inspiration came from brothers campana.

“I inherited an antique mirror from an aunt that had passed away. It was an expensive piece, crystal mirror and heavy wood frame. However, the mirror’s frame was dated and rusty, and the mirror had several stains on it.” 

Carlos wanted to hang this antique mirror on his wall and thought that painting the mirror’s frame in a vibrant color, like a “yellow ferrari” would do the trick.

He bought the painting but wasn’t inspired enough to do the job. “actually, something was telling me that a new color would not be enough to bring that mirror back to life”, he said.

Both mirror and painting were kept in a closet for over one year, until recently when he went to a brothersCampana’s exposition, where he finally found his inspiration.

“The guys had decorated a simple round mirror using white tape to build sort of a mesh pad on the mirror’s surface. I instantly visualized my yellow-framed mirror also decorated with tape – a yellow one, of course. I got so excited about doing this that I ran into a hardware store and bought two rolls of yellow tape (the one you use on wires) to be safe. I couldn’t wait to get home to get started.” 

“the process was very simple, although it took me 3 days to finish it”, he said.

Carlos carefully cleaned the mirror and covered it with newspaper and tape for protection. He had given three coats of painting on the mirror’s frame and to make sure that the “yellow ferrari” ended up perfect, he waited three days for the painting to be dry, then he removed the protection and started to have fun building the tape mesh (btw he used just one roll).

The result was amazing wasn’t it?

Ii you want to know more about Carlos, check out his FLICKER. I’m sure you’ll love his photography.