Alberto E. Martorana, Visual Artist

Working methods and techniques

“Doodle and watch what happens” (Rodolphe Töpffer)

According to the artist, there’s no preferred way to deal with the challenge imposed by the creation of an image or a visual object. “Over the years, long before I decided to become an artist, I’ve discovered myself finding relations of forms, colours, shapes, harmonies, rhythm, balance in a totally involuntary way. Perhaps, the influence of the almost daily talk at the family table, or the periodical visits to my father’s advertising office, or his painting studio, induced that exercise at an unconscious level. But it wasn’t until I started doing some art that that training pushed my image making into an exercise of search for order even out of the chaotic and organic.” His first artistic exercising came as an amateur photographer during his teen years, but didn’t last beyond university life due to the realities of an engineering career.

The infamous phrase “I do not seek, I find” by Pablo Picasso also describes an aspect of Alberto Martorana’s working method. A picture seen in magazine inspired a doodle such as the one shown for “Rosa simétrica.” But projects, such as “The Rose Project” were generated from a paragraph found in one of Joseph Campbell’s studies on comparative mythology. “That simple idea,” he states, “triggered a wide array of thoughts and imagery on which I found myself working years after I had the first glimpse of what it meant to me.”

Working methods and techniques “Doodle and watch what happens” (Rodolphe Töpffer) According to the artist, there’s no preferred way to deal with the challenge imposed by the creation of an image or a visual object. “Over the years, long before I decided to become an artist, I’ve discovered myself finding relations of forms, colours, shapes, harmonies, rhythm, balance in a totally involuntary way. Perhaps, the influence of the almost daily talk at the family table, or the periodical visits to my father’s advertising office, or his painting studio, induced that exercise at an unconscious level. But it wasn’t until I started doing some art that that training pushed my image making into an exercise of search for order even out of the chaotic and organic.” His first artistic exercising came as an amateur photographer during his teen years, but didn’t last beyond university life due to the realities of an engineering career. The infamous phrase “I do not seek, I find” by Pablo Picasso also describes an aspect of Alberto Martorana’s working method. A picture seen in magazine inspired a doodle such as the one shown for “Rosa simétrica.” But projects, such as “The Rose Project” were generated from a paragraph found in one of Joseph Campbell’s studies on comparative mythology. “That simple idea,” he states, “triggered a wide array of thoughts and imagery on which I found myself working years after I had the first glimpse of what it meant to me.”

Study for "Rosa simétrica"

Study for "Rosa simétrica"

"Rosa simétrica" (Digital image)
From the beginning of his career as an artist, he realized, and he doesn’t mind to admit, that he derives his images more from art than from nature. Canadian intemperate climate convinced him that landscape painting was not always possible, but during the summer he always carries a Moleskin ® sketchbook in his pocket to jot down ideas and to do value studies. A Nikon FE has helped him over the years to prepare studies and collage of images and sketches for his paintings. Later on he purchased a pocket Nikon M310 ®, which size and weight allowed him to carry the camera everywhere and collect images to draw ideas from. More recently, as he became more proficient with digitally based methods, he added a Canon Powershot A510 ® digital camera to his set of tools. However, “it is true what I learnt from my father and it is that in a studio colour becomes monotonous and there’s no substitute for colour studies from nature, such as the ones practised by landscape painters,” he adds.

Study for "In the name of the rose"

"In the name of the rose" (Mixed media0
As for his role as an artist, Alberto Martorana doesn’t see himself as a creator, but as a carrier, a conduit or a processor of ideas and images he has seen or encountered in his life.
Even when he is away from his art, sometimes for months at a time due to demands of his engineering assignments, he collects ideas to develop and waits for a window of opportunity to make them a reality.
In recent years, after another artist and friend, Mr. Jorgen Lauritzen introduced him to digital processing of images and painting, he started to use Adobe Photoshop ® as a tool to produce more finished working studies on which he bases his drawings and paintings. “Despite of these fancy and resourceful methods,” he declares, “I have neither been able to deal with problems arising from the difference of scale between a sketch and a full size painting or drawing, nor the final difference of feel that painting with oils give the surface. At the end, I can appreciate the genesis of the final product, but still feel somewhat dissatisfied of what the outcome could have been if I knew better, or surprised when the final thing looked better and different from the original.” As another victim of a rushed modern life, Mr. Martorana, not only juggles between careers, but between working manually and digitally. For somebody so kin to experimenting with media and techniques, this artist struggles to hold on to the principles and movers behind his vision. He asserts, “most of the time I find pleasure in experimenting with images and materials.” He then describes doing art “as an incurable lonely and obscure obsession,” which is fundamental to keep his mental and spiritual stability in the middle of all societal demands and pressures.
© Alberto E. Martorana 1993-2006