Chiara Dal Maso searches for “imperfection, colour and vitality” in her ongoing drawing project

Date
18 July 2017

Illustrator Chiara Dal Maso’s ongoing project Everyday Distraction started as a way to motivate herself to draw more. “I started drawing for a week, then for a month and so on. Now I’ve done almost 200 drawings and I’m not going to stop until the end of the year,” says Milan-based Chiara.

Her ideas come from observing situations and interpreting them in her own style, depicting scenes like cycling in the rain, painting in the forest and traffic jams. Chiara’s images also explore bigger themes of desire, irony, joy, pain, bad habits, fantasy and communication among other things, giving depth to her chirpy works.

“I’m particularly drawn to uncomplicated things that convey a great sense of fun and spontaneity,” Chiara explains. “I try to avoid spending too much time working on a piece otherwise it becomes too smooth and polished and I end up not liking it. I crave imperfection, powerful colour, roughness and vitality.”

Chiara uses different techniques which makes her practice broad and allows her to experiment with printmaking, animation, photography, collage and more traditional illustration techniques. For Everyday Distractions, Chiara has mostly used acrylic-based paint markers, which are easy to carry around and can write on various surfaces, allowing her to “draw multi-layered illustrations.

Drawing so regularly means that every day is different. “On a good day I have a lot of time to draw, but usually I have an hour or less. I always have to bring materials with me to draw and I need internet connection to upload a decent photograph of the drawing,” says Chiara. Despite the constraints, the illustrator’s drive outweighs the challenges. “I’m tired of being bombed with commercial images which only serve to sell. I feel a responsibility to create something different,” explains Chiara. “My purpose is not to represent reality as it is, I just want to give my personal and emotional interpretation, creating liberated images.”

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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Chiara Dal Maso: Everyday Distraction

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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