Anita Guerra with EliZabeth Frolet
Conversazioni/Conversations
March 5, 2024
Temple University Rome Gallery
 
Why I invited EliZabeth Frolet
 
EliZabeth Frolet and I are both figurative artists, yet our process varies significantly. EliZabeth´s faces and figures emerge fluidly and rapidly from memory, poetry, music, and her subconscious. Strokes in charcoal or gold paint aim to capture elusive features in the here and now on paper, canvas, or ceramic. Instead, I need to work directly from observation, carefully constructing my narrative. I sketch my characters from life, photographs, or inspired by artworks in Roman churches and museums.
 
In my series, contemporary tourists in Rome inhabit the grand “vedute” of Piranesi´s etchings, created in the XVIII century as souvenirs for wealthy travelers of the Grand Tour.  Modern visitors´ cell phones feverishly record everything they see to share their experiences with friends and family at home. The timeless lure of Rome´s monuments and antiquities connect seemingly disparate eras in history.
 
The passage of time, impermanence, transcendence, nostalgia, awe, and a search for people and places left behind are themes recurrent in both EliZabeth´s and my worlds.