Story & Lesson Highlights with Beddru

We recently had the chance to connect with Beddru and have shared our conversation below.

Beddru, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
What makes me lose track of time, and ultimately find myself again, is the creation process behind HABIBI, my new body of work. Immersing myself in this new series of paintings, I enter a space where my current self, but also memory, sensuality, and mythology intertwine. The word habibi, rich in intimacy and warmth, becomes a portal. As I paint, I lose myself in the many symbols, in the layers of emotion and light, in the tension between the seen and the hidden, the sacred and the profane, the “what” I can say and “what” not.

With HABIBI, I explore what it means to long for connection, to be both the observer and the observed. The brush becomes an extension of desire, the canvas a mirror of vulnerability. In these moments, time dissolves. I vanish into the rhythm of creation, and in doing so, I return to the truest version of myself, anchored in emotion, story, and the poetic pulse of the human experience.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Beddru, a visual artist originally from Sicily, based in Brussels. My work is known for its vibrant use of colour, reverse-painting technique on plexiglass, and a strong narrative dimension rooted in identity, sensuality, and the reimagining of classical mythology.

Rather than following a traditional academic path, my practice has evolved through deep personal research and experimentation. I am fascinated by the way our heritage can be given new life, filtered through a contemporary lens. My artworks are not just visual compositions; they are emotional and symbolic maps that invite the viewer into a space of introspection, curiosity, and connection.

At the moment, I’m working on HABIBI, a new body of work that explores the tender power of affection and desire. Habibi, an Arabic term of endearment, becomes the central motif through which I examine the sacredness of emotional bonds, the beauty of vulnerability, and the quiet, persistent force of intimacy in all its forms. With this series, I continue to blur the line between the personal and the universal, using my distinctive technique to let light, memory, and emotion speak all at once.

The series is a celebration of truth rather than a provocation, challenging conventional perceptions of male nudity in art. This body of work will be composed of 5 large canvases. VoyageDallas is the first magazine I am allowing to publish visuals of the first finished artwork part of the Habibi body of work. The series will also be featured in international dedicated art magazines later this year, in anticipation of the official presentation of the artworks to the public during the Context Miami art fair in December 2025.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
A single moment doesn’t define how I see the world. My vision is in constant evolution, shaped by the experiences I engage in, the people I encounter, and the emotional landscapes I navigate through my work. Every project, every journey, every conversation (with people I value) subtly reshapes my perspective.

Whether it’s the silent intensity of a studio session or a spontaneous exchange in a distant city, these fragments accumulate and shift how I understand connection, beauty, vulnerability, and identity. I don’t believe in fixed truths, what moves me is the fluidity of life and the way meaning transforms when seen through different emotional and cultural lenses.

This openness to evolution is central to both who I am and how I create. It’s what allows my work to remain honest, alive, and deeply human.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Trust your instincts, even when they take you off the beaten path. The world may try to tell you who you should be, but your uniqueness is your strength. Protect it, nurture it, and never apologise for being different or seeing beauty differently. Everything that makes you feel out of place now will one day become the very language through which you connect with others. Your difference will be the source that will make you create unique art.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
That’s a beautiful and complex question.

The public version of me is real, but it’s a distilled version, shaped through the lens of my work. It reflects my values, my vision, my aesthetics. But like anyone, I contain multitudes. What I share with the world is intentional, poetic, and emotionally honest, but it’s still a curated fragment.

The more intimate parts of me, the doubts, the contradictions, the quiet chaos behind the artworks, often remain private and accessible only to a few trusted people, not out of secrecy, but because they belong to the process. They are the raw material that fuels the work, not always the finished form.

So, yes, the public version is me, but it’s me in dialogue with the world, while the rest, the unseen, is what makes the work possible in the first place.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
What people will most likely misunderstand about my legacy is that, I have no intention of building one.

I don’t create with the ambition of being remembered. I create to be present, to feel, to question, to connect. I could not care less about being remembered. Those who love me will naturally do so if they wish. Legacy implies something fixed, something left behind to be preserved. But my practice is about fluidity, impermanence, and evolution. I’m not interested in being placed in a defined narrative or aesthetic box.

Art, for me, is a living dialogue, not a monument. It’s an outcome, not an output. If anything I do resonates beyond me, it’s because it touched something honest in someone else’s moment. And that’s enough. I prefer to focus on what’s alive now, not on how I’ll be framed later.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?

Coffee? Workouts? Hitting the snooze button 14 times? Everyone has their morning ritual and we

Highlighter Series
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?

Our deepest wounds often shape us as much as our greatest joys. The pain we

Highlighter Series
Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?

Culture, economic circumstances, family traditions, local customs and more can often influence us more than