Centuries in the Making

Ariana Franco, Runyon Canyon Hike, January 1, 2020, photographer Jared

At the beginning of last October I wrote a blog post about where I was at that moment in time. I described a little bit about my experience of life during the pandemic. Well I’m here to tell you that things have changed AGAIN. Big changes. I want to rewind a bit. Let’s go back to January 1st 2020 when Jared and I embarked on an adventure to Los Angeles for 5 days. It was our first time in the city. We loved it and it loved us back. On our trip I was able to spend an entire day with one of my favorite people and photographer, Jenna Peffley. Jenna and I have known each other for 17 years, half of my life. We lived together in college between 2006 and 2008 in a house we called Gladys. Jenna and I hadn’t seen each other in almost a decade so it was a welcomed visit and we picked up right where we left off. LA was exactly the way Jared and I wanted to start 2020. I had just come off a huge project and was about to start another one that I wasn’t totally convinced I wanted to do. On this trip I made the decision to push forward. When we got home I did that, pushed forward. 

Life was the same as when we left 5 days before. I was back to my 10-12 hour work days. I pushed forward. Preparations, budgets, hiring, and details ensued upon my life. I was working what felt like 5 jobs, trying to remember to eat, California dreaming of the carbonara I had at Louie’s. Everything kept moving and I had blinders on to anything else that was happening in the world. By February huge progress was being made to open up the second Kalma Miami location at Aventura Mall and I was planning for Spring/Summer window and interior displays at Harmont & Blaine at Brickell City Center. I was barely aware of the first infection of COVID-19. I’m trying so hard to recall my thoughts and feelings but to be honest I was thinking the same way as most people. This will pass, just keep pushing forward. 

Oh how wrong I was. By March I knew I should have trusted my instincts, spoken up, and done something. But I didn’t. I kept pushing forward, but with hesitancy. And we all know what happened on March 16, 2020. The world shut down, the world changed and with it my personal world changed. I covered quite a bit of what was going on those first few months in my Letting Go post last year. I spent March to October just kind of wandering around in my own mind, life, and home. I had so many ideas and I was desperately trying to latch onto any one of those great ideas and projects. I did things I had put off for so long, completing tasks, like the Artist’s Way 12 week workbook, and learning new things like illustrator and how to incorporate the use of laser cutting and CNC into my work. I needed that time more than I can express in words. I was able to clear my mind. Going into October, I really thought I had figured things out for myself, but to be honest nothing felt true to me. It felt forced, like what I was supposed to do, not what I am meant to do. I kept asking the questions, who am I? Where did my interests come from? Who do I want to be when I grow up?

Let’s take a moment to rewind again. It was Christmas of 2017, my brother got me the Ancestry.com DNA test. My brother has always been interested in our genealogy and family history. He has found 2nd-4th cousins living in Italy, visited them, and had been working on getting us dual citizenship in Italy. I took the DNA test and the results were very interesting! We know we are Italian, French Canadian and Acadian. My maternal grandmother Emilie would roll over in her grave if I didn’t specify Acadian. I had seen other family members creating trees on Ancestry.com and I had one started. Every so often over the years my brother had shared family history with me. I was interested in the information he knew and was sharing but had never done anything with that information. In July 2020 he sent me a text message with a photo of our Great Grandfather Giovanni Franco’s first petition for naturalization in 1919 with the encouragement to try to figure out who our grand aunt was, my paternal grandfather’s eldest sister. The page consisted of what looked like scribbled cursive names listed 1/3 down the page. I decided to jump on my ancestry account to see documents, did a bit of research, figured a few things out, and then got distracted with other project ideas, which was the result of my Letting Go post.

Maria Vincenza Rotondo (Franco-Forlini), wife of Giovanni “John” Franco, 1951, Wedding for her Grandson in New York c/o DeMarco Family

Flash forward from July to October 2020 and I was sitting on my navy blue futon in my office closet, cloffice, figuring out my finances and what I needed to do to make ends meet during this strange time. I was budgeting well, but still needed to trim some fat. It was October 24, I remember because this day is important. I was texting with my close friend who had recently quit smoking cigarettes and I had this feeling that it was time for me to try. On that day I made the decision not to go buy a pack of cigarettes, and I haven’t had one since. I also decided that I either needed to use my paid Ancestry.com account or stop paying for it. 8 hours later, I connected with my grand aunt Chiara Franco aka Clara DeMarco’s great granddaughter. This was the grand aunt my brother had been asking about in July. I realized I am incredibly good at research. The next day I got up and decided to research more. And the next day, and the next day, and then all of a sudden it had been 4 months and I found more than my brother did in 15 years. I reconnected with family members and I was so happy. I felt fulfilled in ways I hadn’t been in so long. I couldn’t stop talking about my findings to my friends and family. We even got a photograph of my great grandmother Maria Vincenza Rotondo (Franco-Forlini) who was born in Pontecorvo, Italy in 1883 and passed away in Bridgeport, Connecitcut in 1953.

As the end of 2020 was creeping around the corner I was helping my best friend plan her wedding and I knew that I was going to need to get into my studio to create 300 handmade paper flowers for her centerpieces and altar. I couldn’t help but feel different. Having learned a few new things about my ancestors, I started 2021 in back in my studio 5-6 days a week craving to be at my computer researching. Mid January my brother and sister in law bought their first house. I was tasked to help with some renovations before their move in date of Mid-February. Jamie and Howard had set their wedding date for March 14th and I was honored as her maid of honor. I enjoyed planning her bridal shower and making all the paper flowers for the wedding. It was such a magical wedding. Between January and March I was fully consumed with these responsibilities and if you know me I take this stuff really seriously, they were my priorities at the time. I wanted nothing more than my brother and sister-in-law's house to be a home, and for Jamie to have the perfect day marrying the love of her life, Howard.

It was a lot at the start of the year and by the end of March I was back to researching full time. I discovered that we had family members in Los Angeles that had come to America from Baia Latina, Italy in the 1960s. I had figured out that my 2nd Great Grandmother, Filomena, went to LA in 1953 but wasn’t entirely sure why. I decided to see who was still alive and if I could find a phone number to call and ask some questions. Everytime I looked at the tree, one name kept popping out at me, Edoardo. So I found his phone number. Here we go back to Los Angeles. Everyday for weeks I kept saying I was going to call and then I would get nervous and not do it. Until one day in April, it was a Saturday afternoon and I just did it. I called. A man with a slight Italian accent answered the phone and I asked if he was who I was looking for. I could hear the television loudly in the background. I also knew that I had called a landline, the rarity of that makes me giggle. He responded, yes! I explained who I was and how we are related. I had to write it out, “your father, Francesco, is the brother of my great grandmother, Carmela. I’m your cousin.” I was so afraid he was just going to hang up on me, but he didn’t. Instead he was so happy to talk. I asked him questions about his life in Italy, his parents, and grandparents. This man was born in 1936 and experienced World War 2 in Italy. He proceeded to tell me about his two children, he has a daughter in her mid-30s that was born in LA but grew up in Italy, and still lives there. I immediately tried to find her on the internet and through social media. 2 days later Nadia and I were communicating daily. 

I sat there so upset that I hadn’t started my research earlier to know that I was so close to my family in LA right before this pandemic and had no idea. I was also so excited and grateful that my research, this work I had been doing started to make sense. It brought me something, it brought me to my people. Things between me and my ancestors are getting serious. So serious that in April when I got a call from a client for a new project, I started to cry and had this extreme feeling that I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to go to my studio unless it was related to my research. I had a total breakdown, angry, and distraught. I took the 6 month job anyway, because I still wasn’t convinced that I could make anything of my genealogy work. When I’ve been in my studio I listen to Italian American podcasts, and the history of the Unification of Italy, anything that will bring me knowledge that I can apply to this work. At the end of May, Jared and I were able to take a trip to New York. A much needed trip considering we had been at home since early 2020. We attended an Italian American birthday party for his step mother, and I met his step cousin’s wife whose family also immigrated to Bridgeport from Southern Italy in the early 1900s. I felt connected. That’s when I knew if I wanted to take my genealogy work seriously I would have to do something different.

In between studio sessions over the last 4 months, I’ve been researching and writing. I started collecting death certificates from vital records. I have gone back 7 generations in my lineage from Baia Latina and Villa Santa Croce, Italy. I’m getting better and better at reading Italian documents from the 1800s everyday. I have some very strong ideas on how to bring creativity into the way this information is shared. It can get very confusing very quickly. I now have hundreds of ancestors on my tree and it’s growing all the time. Nadia and I have become very close and we are so grateful to have found each other. The way our ancestors have brought us together is nothing short of magical. During my family history research, I started looking into becoming a Professional Genealogist. Everything led me to a 15 week online course at Boston University for a Certificate in Genealogical Research. I took this as a sign. First, I was born in Boston. Second, my father graduated from Boston University, and third it starts in September, right as I end my current client project. Still skeptical, I called a dear friend who knows a little bit about going back to school in your mid-30s. Between his encouragement, and my family's support I signed up. 

Crest of Terra di Lavoro, the ancient province in Campania (found on wiki) The title and boundries of Terra di Lavoro was abolished by Mussolini in 1927.

I sit here today, in Miami, it’s 90 degrees out. I have my office window open and the smell of fresh cut damp grass is wafting in as the dark clouds roll in for an afternoon shower. I remember how lovely the weather was in LA. I’m surrounded by index cards taped to the wall with notes of passenger manifests, addresses, names, and a printout of a forged WW1 draft card for my Step Great Grandfather Luigi “Geech” Forlini. I imagine what a summer was like in Pontecorvo, Baia e Latina, Caiazzo, Alvignano, or Cusano, Italy in August during the 19th century. In one month I will be starting the online classes. The 15 week course is going to teach me more about researching, DNA, Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS), Forensic Genealogy, and being a Professional Genealogist. My world has changed and I have welcomed it. Everyday I do one thing that moves me closer to being able to share the stories of my ancestors from the province Terra di Lavoro in the region of Campania. The farmers, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, spinners, weavers, and railroad laborers. The mysteries of these people who were once forgotten and unknown.

Letting Go

It’s pretty incredible to think about the last 6+ months. I shut my eyes and try to remember what my life was like before the stay at home orders, masks, hand sanitizer, not being able to see my friends and family safely, and the hyper awareness of racial injustice in America. Right before the global pandemic I worked upwards of 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week doing my best to make a small business run smoothly and create (not my personal) brand awareness in hopes that it would be profitable. I also frequently took on freelance gigs, and did other odds and ends for my family’s company.

The typical profitability time horizon for a retail store can be anywhere between 24-36 months. One location was open for 14 months and the other opened on March 10, 2020, being open for only 6 days after I had built it out, hired staff, and trained them. I had been working on getting everything together for 2 months. The timing was unimaginable during an unprecedented time.

When I moved to Miami 3 years ago my goal has (always) been to make art and support myself doing it. I’ve mostly been able to do that. But let’s be real it’s been a struggle. When I started taking myself seriously I was given oodles of opportunities and I’ve taken them. If you read my post The Last 2 Years you’ll hear all about my “detour”. In short, some things I got involved with were really other peoples goals presented me as creative opportunites. I was going 100 MPH and then everything stopped. I soon became fully aware of how deprived I was of my personal art practice, my creative dreams, and how I deprived myself of these things. When I realized this, I let go. Completely and wholly. The pandemic has been the real personal creative opportunity I’ve needed to get back on track.

For the last two weeks of March, also known as the first two weeks of quarantine, I wandered around my house aimlessly. I was encouraged by one of the great friends to lay outside in the sun, read a book, to do face masks, watch tv, eat, and sleep. I was encouraged to stop. So I did. I was going 0 MPH confused, but well rested with a new really fabulous skin care routine. Jared and I kept joking that our quarantine was an artist residency in our own home.

It was in the beginning of April I needed to move by hands for my sanity. My brother asked me if I could make masks to help mitigate COVID-19. I had the tools and the skills to create functional, wearable objects, and I did. I made and sold 350 masks between April 15th and August 20th. A huge thank you! to everyone who supported me and purchased masks. The sales from that gave me enough to continue my quarantine-chill lifestyle and the space to work towards my creative endeavors.

Between April and May I began to uncover, discover, and recover my sense of self. The city began to reopen at the end of May but I made the decision not to go back to my old normal, and to stay on course. I was TERRIFIED to fall back into old behaviors and of getting sick with COVID. I let go. I let go of the person who who worked 10+ hours a days and continued to grow. Mid-June rolled in quickly and I started learning about CNC and laser cutting machines. I was told the first step was to learn Illustrator. I’m not great on the computer. Yea, I’ve built a few websites, and done a lot of art direction for graphic designers and brand development, but the last time I used the software was in 2006. I’ve fallen in love with digital art making. I love the idea that I can use underlying themes of my art- color, repetitive shapes, and fine details to playful create from the safety of my office.

After having a 2 week depressive episode at the beginning of July I dusted myself off and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron; a 12 week guide to creative personal development. I made the decision to start that process on August 5. I had once attempted the spiritual path to creative recovery but fell into a “detour” in 2018. I purchased my artist Lisa Frank spiral notebooks and a 12 pack of pens. I’m currently on week 10. I’ve been addressing my workaholism (there’s a quiz and I passed brilliantly), setting boundries, and dedicating time to my personal art practice and I’m writing again!

Part of my new practice is creating digital patterns for products. When I realized that how much fun I was having creating these patterns I knew I had to find a way to translate them into 3 dimension objects. I got linked up on Society6, an amazing platform for artists to sell their work. One of the things I love most about this is that all the products are made to order. I am able to adjust the patterns to fit each product the way I want. My artist is happy, playful, and proud that the results of letting go is makin’ moves.

I hope you enjoy my new home decor and lifestyle products as much as I do! I introduce to you the first 5 collections- Midcentury Modern Shapes, Woven Plaid, Sound, Abstract Landscape, and Abstract Circles with Lines. I put together various color palettes for each to fit the designs. Products range from throw pillows, duvet covers, and curtains to mugs, tote bags, notebooks and more!

The Art of Why

Sometimes I like to ask myself “Why are you a sculptor?” “Why do you make art?” or “Why are designing spaces so important to your initiatives?” These are important questions for me to stay on course for my mission. I have to constantly remind myself and explore my WHY. I am 5’5” and weigh about 105 pounds. Physically I look like the furthest thing from a “sculptor”, which even today is a genre of art dominated by men. People typically assume I make DIY projects (because I have tattoos and am a millennial), or have multiple strong gentlemen at by beck and call (because there is no way my small frame is bending metal and hauling lumber). Neither of these things are true. I’m not saying I do everything on my own all the time. I have people I trust that support the technical goals of each experience I create. 

2017

From an academic stand point, my practice is based in basic carpentry, painting and printmaking, in the sense of how I manipulate my materials. This is where things can get interesting, my experiences are based on interior design, architecture and how space is utilized. When these practice and experiences collide the result is sculptural installations. 

Installation art has become more accessible within the art world. Utilizing found object or mass produced materials arranged in unused spaces and galleries, and interacting with the viewer are the telltale signs you are in an installation or a happening. I handle raw materials the same way a painter handles paint on whatever surface they choose. My surface is the design of 3 dimensional space. How I adorn walls, suspend my objects, and influence the space for the viewer’s reaction creates my impact to the culture of art. The reaction is not one I can control, and that is a beautiful feeling. 

So why am I a sculptor?

3 dimensional objects whether they are about form, function, or purely for aesthetics are the things we interact with daily. Life is 3 dimensional. Life is utilitarian. Sculpture can be presented on different planes of existence. This is the first part of my WHY. 

Why do I make art?

Art takes innovation to create something that is more than ordinary. Expressions of the extraordinary. It’s about taking ideas, shapes, colors, textures, materials, and pushing them from what and how they are typically used for and manipulating them to be extraordinary. Art is the language I speak pushing myself to move through expressive gestures presented in physical space.

Why is space important?

I’m obsessed with physical space. I always have been. I’m intrigued by how people interact with space, the things they do and don’t notice. How each person has a different experience. When you walk into someone’s house or into a retail store and you can literally see the personality radiating through each simple moment, object, color, and texture. It’s the physical design story that gives a sense of connection. 

Before Agua de Coco at Aventura Mall, February 2020

After Kalma build out at Aventura Mall, March 2020

The answer to my why questions are true to my personal beliefs and lifestyle. I need to move through the expressive gesture of fabricating something that has appeared in my mind due to a vision. That vision can best be described as inspiration. Inspiration comes in different forms. Conversation, physical experience, and the past, just a name a few. Creating physical installations pushes people to move through personal expressive gestures guiding their intuition and as a result having a feeling in which I have directed them.