Meet Flavia Lovatelli

We were lucky to catch up with Flavia Lovatelli recently and have shared our conversation below.

Flavia , so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

That is an excellent question! How did I overcome imposter syndrome… it took a while, it wasn’t an overnight occurrence and it was a multi layered peel if you will. The first actual memory of it happening is during a collaborative show in Charlotte, I had several pieces showing but per my usual I hated just standing where my work was, I had a tendency to walk away and find someone to talk to. I saw a lady standing at my work deep in contemplation and I walked up to her and chatted her up, she wasn’t aware I was the artists as she praised the work. I realized then I had found my best way to validate my work, catch the spectator unawares. I saw my work for the first time though the eyes of another, not the eyes of the maker full of judgement, full of what the intention was that didn’t pan out, but fresh eyes seeing something for the first time. Imposter syndrome is about our own insecurities comparing ourselves to others and their achievements. I am no different, I compare myself to everyone else around me but my saving grace was in developing my skill in a medium few work with; Paper! I was lucky enough not only to be in love with the material but to have the inspiration on what to do with it. Once I found the coil I kept going, aspiring for more, never settling. I overcame the imposter syndrome by looking around me and seeing that there are very few artists that make what I do at the level of intricacy. I also see my work and love my sculptures, I realize if I weren’t the artist that makes them I would be obsessed by them.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a master paper manipulator, my speciality is in recycling paper into elaborate sculptures, my niche is in the intricacy of my work. I take pages out of magazines, books, junk mail and so on, I either slice it into rectangles, roll them with the aid of a skewer, flatten the rolled paper and coil it into a tight coined shape then manipulate that coil into the desired form; or I slice very long thin pie shape strips and roll those into what I call seeds. I make hundreds of these shapes every day and assemble them onto the various structures I make. My work is inspired by nature, I have created a myriad of pieces that resemble spores, urchins and coral.

At present I am working on a series called the Guardians of the Earth, they are mix media series made with porcelain doll heads, paper mâché and my coils. The Guardians are filled with trash like plastic and broken bits saving it from ending up in our land fill.; they are protecting our earth. At present I am working on several projects, one public art installation in the Mill District Public Art Trail that is going to be unveiled in Columbia, SC. sometime this fall (2014), I have a solo show happening in July 2024 at Pack Circle Gallery in Charleston, SC and a solo show happening in 2025 at Dalton Gallery in Rock Hill, NC. I also have a sculpture at a show in Shanghai, at the Fengxian Museum through 2025.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

yikes, what are three qualities… I want to say I lucked out being born hyper active, back in my day none of us were diagnosed with ADD, ADHD or any other spectrums we have today, but I remember the teachers always complaining to my mother how unfocussed I was or “special” for I was always distracting others with what I was doing. I remembered I daydreamed a lot as a child. First quality would be my drive which I suppose stems from the crazy amount of energy. Second is my joie-de-vivre attitude, which is something I focus on all the time. Last is the desire to constantly improve myself and my work. It helps to have been born creative, I don’t have one thing that inspires me, everything inspires me. There isn’t one thing that was most impactful in my journey, I tried my hand at so many things as a youngster, my parents kept reminding me how I never really finished anything. It’s not that I didn’t finish… I was garnering as many abilities as I could for all of them would inevitably lead me here, where I am today. All my learnings are being applied in my work today, from learning how to sew to harvesting my own paper cord. Weaving, altering, creating tools for my work, all of those are what makes my work unique.
My advice to young folks is “chase your dream” no one can tell you who you are, only you know and can answer this query. Follow your passion for that is the only thing that is going to be your legacy and the only thing you are going to want to keep investing in. Whether it is art or music or fashion or numbers or words. I believe we all have something in us that is calling to us, it doesn’t have to be art or music, it could be accounting, law even plumbing! Some of these ‘callings’ might not sound glamorous, so I say you obviously have not met real gurus in those sectors. I have, I met some incredible crafters of numbers, one of my accountants was a magical numbers being, I had an attorney once who was able to create incredible legal feats, etc. those who pursue their “calling” have the ability to live and breathe that calling and make magic with it. Whether they know it or not their craft or skill is inspiring. I believe most of us are lost in the noise that is the pursuit of success.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I’ll start by defining what success is to me for it isn’t the same for all. Successful to me is my happiness and the happiness I bring to others. Success is the love I receive from around me, my immediate circle and from strangers through my art. Financial success factors in only when I have to pay the bills outside from that money doesn’t define my success.

If I have to pick the most important lesson I guess that would be learning to be outgoing. My parents taught me to turn my introvert-ness into becoming an extrovert. It is definitely a learned thing. I was born a thinker, a dreamer an introvert, I was painfully shy as a teen. I would get panic attacks at the thought of having to go out of my home, go to parties, join a group of strangers. I mean serious panic attacks. My parents were instrumental in the way that I was mature enough to realize I needed to jump feet first into my nightmare and face my fears. I left home at 19, I went from living at home with my parents who made my life absolutely comfortable to New York with friends of the family, but alone in all intents and purposes.

I am very successful in my world because of my imposed autonomy and learned outgoingness. I still struggle with putting myself out there on uncharted territories, but I do it and it works and the struggle goes away. I have grown with the aid of my community and my peers. I have sought out the company of others, crafters, artists, musicians, mathematicians, wordsmiths and so on for all of us together make a whole. Surrounding myself with everyone has gifted me with overall knowledge, things we all need in life, from the smallest need; life lessons. None of the things I do were borne from me alone, I have gathered little nuggets of knowledge from everyone around me, sometimes as small as a grain of salt but even a grain of salt gives meaning to food. I have done a myriad of things and all of them have been collaborative efforts, I take pride in all the achievements we have

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Flavia Lovatelli

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