La casa di Catarella

Several elements of the land of Sicily in this artwork: the stone tower, of which the island is rich in the whole coastal perimeter and which brings back to the times when pirates attacked our coasts (especially in the 16th century); the clothes hanging out between the balconies of two houses, a great symbol of popular Sicily; the paladins, the cart and the pink domes of Palermo; the raste (Sicilian for vases) on the balconies; the stone walls and the coppi (Sicilian for terracotta roof tiles) on the roofs of the houses; and those colors and that vegetation and that sea…. In Blandi’s works Sicily appears with infinite references: a descriptive triumph through colors and that gumminess of his drawings that almost seems to want to accentuate the richness of history, traditions and culture of the island, a patrimony in which Sicily is so rich that they must become gummy, to enter all in a canvas. Gumminess that is also irony and “not taking oneself too seriously”, two typical elements of the Sicilian character.

(photo) Tonnara (tuna fish trapping) in Scopello with the tower (1557) in the background