Anna Piera Di Silvestre is an Italian illustrator based in Berlin. She describes herself as a source of nuisance. Piera is a fascinating multi-faceted artist who curates an art editorial called “Visual Satiation” for Livetrigger and also delivers a collection of fast-sketched on her You Won’t Laugh Instagram page while creating an exciting world full of modern witches for her own pleasure.
KALTBLUT: Tell us about your creative background – when did you first start illustrating/what really pushed you to do so?
Anna Piera: Hello Kaltblut Mag, and thanks for having me! I wish I had a more interesting answer to give, but as a majority of artists would likely reply, I just had a natural predisposition for illustration. I started drawing as soon as I was able to hold a pencil. I was lucky to be born and raised in a very creative environment where both of my parents (and relatives from both families) were crafty and had strong, artistic talents and personalities.
As a child, I grew up adoring cartoons, Top Cow comics (Michael Turner was definitely my favorite author), and manga (above all Fuyumi Soryo and Ai Yazawa´s stuff, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma 1/2). In my adolescence, I fell in love with my father´s collection of 1970s Italian counterculture magazines, including “Frigidaire”, “Cannibale”, “Il Male”, and the French “Metal Hurlant”, and all their revolutionary masters. Nowadays I am fascinated with anything that catches my eyes or triggers my morbid sense of curiosity. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg, but it´s some insight into the background that shaped me as an artist.
KALTBLUT: What medium/tools do you feel most comfortable with when creating your work?
Anna Piera: I draw everything from scratch. If it´s a classic illustration, I usually work on my beloved Fabriano paper using fine liner pens, French curves, and acrylic paint. Otherwise, I´ll scan my original artwork’s outlines and work on it digitally in Photoshop, depending on the purpose or desired end product.
KALTBLUT: Are your illustrations inspired by personal experiences or of friends/scenarios you know of?
Anna: Yes. Such stuff as turmoil is made on.
KALTBLUT: What is the message you want to get across to viewers of your work?
Anna: When I’m drawing just for myself I don´t think much about delivering a message, other than transferring my emotions as best I can over to a visual level. As long as viewers get some sort of feeling — whether it’s admiration or, sometimes, repulsion — I like to think I’m doing it right.
Commissions have always been fun for me. I love to find the right subject to work on, develop themes, and make everyone happy with the end result.
Then there is “You Won’t Laugh” (@youwontlaugh) which can be described as a collection of fast-sketched, silly memorabilia of degenerated thoughts, inside jokes, and epic moments shared with my closest friends. We’re all laughing, but you probably won’t.
KALTBLUT: Have you found any other work/artists to be really inspiring currently?
Anna: Although I tend not to think about other people’s art while working on my own stuff, I think there are lots of very talented, inspiring artists out there!
I also curate an art editorial called “Visual Satiation” for Livetrigger, a webzine, where I share the work and interview some of my favourite creative minds around. To name just a few off the top of my head, I’d recommend looking at the incredible work of Alice Bloomfield (@bl00mfield), Alexey Kondakov (@alksko), Toshio Saeki (@toshiosaekioficial), and Theo Jansen (@theojansen_official).
KALTBLUT: What is your ultimate goal?
Anna: Hard question. I’d say: owning a couch, being happy doing what I love, and being a domestic cat living in the countryside if reincarnation exists.
Contact:
Instagram: @annapiera_illustration
