Biography - Biography - Who am I? - Mena Martini's Website

Who am I?

Mena Martini
	Art is a flickering moment of beauty that, when attained on the canvas, brings awe to the eyes of the viewers, a deep and grasping silence to the soul.
Born and educated in Italy, I have been a fervid admirer of visual art since my late teens. In fact, I used my first paycheck to buy a painting! Still very young, I organized shows for artists and traveled in Europe visiting galleries and museums. In the meantime I became a teacher, taught in public schools and accepted an assignment as a language program coordinator with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which took me to France for a few years and then to Canada. Several trips to South America and North America, Asia and Africa increased my awareness of international art. While in Vancouver I volunteered as a docent for the Vancouver Art Gallery, and that too was an enriching experience. However, it was only when I was ill with breast cancer that I allowed myself to approach art directly, without timidity: painting became one of the therapeutic tools I used to understand and overcome my disease, a journey I have described in my book Cristallo which won the Bressani Literary Prize in Canada. Free of cancer, I was left with an enormous passion for painting that I have cultivated in the last fifteen years, during which my exploration of visual art has been very strong and ever increasing. After taking drawing, oil and pastel painting classes at the Vancouver Academy of Art, the Capilano University and the Vancouver School Board, I studied privately with Natalia Vetrova, then took classes with Marija Petrivic in Calgary and several artists in Vancouver. I am especially interested in abstract expressionism, as I view nature too perfect on its own and believe that no effort on my part to imitate it will ever reproduce its intrinsic beauty. Abstract art, on the other hand, is intriguing, brings forth curiosity, questions, demands to be explored so as to be understood.

Mena Martini

Art is a flickering moment of beauty that,
when attained on the canvas,
brings awe to the eyes of the viewers,
a deep and grasping silence to the soul.

Born and educated in Italy, I have been a fervid admirer of visual art since my late teens. In fact, I used my first paycheck to buy a painting! Still very young, I organized shows for artists and traveled in Europe visiting galleries and museums.

In the meantime I became a teacher, taught in public schools and accepted an assignment as a language program coordinator with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which took me to France for a few years and then to Canada. Several trips to South America and North America, Asia and Africa increased my awareness of international art. While in Vancouver I volunteered as a docent for the Vancouver Art Gallery, and that too was an enriching experience.

However, it was only when I was ill with breast cancer that I allowed myself to approach art directly, without timidity: painting became one of the therapeutic tools I used to understand and overcome my disease, a journey I have described in my book Cristallo which won the Bressani Literary Prize in Canada.

Free of cancer, I was left with an enormous passion for painting that I have cultivated in the last fifteen years, during which my exploration of visual art has been very strong and ever increasing.

After taking drawing, oil and pastel painting classes at the Vancouver Academy of Art, the Capilano University and the Vancouver School Board, I studied privately with Natalia Vetrova, then took classes with Marija Petrivic in Calgary and several artists in Vancouver.

I am especially interested in abstract expressionism, as I view nature too perfect on its own and believe that no effort on my part to imitate it will ever reproduce its intrinsic beauty. Abstract art, on the other hand, is intriguing, brings forth curiosity, questions, demands to be explored so as to be understood.