3rd Place: United Creators First Annual Online Juried Arts Competition

Interview by Gil Sembrano

Mr. Covelli, a French artist and furniture designer residing in Brooklyn, produces highly conceptual sculptures and installations of various diverse media addressing themes of both personal and universally shared emotions and our responsibility to the earth.

Describe your earliest beginnings as an artist.

After two years of working in building construction for a small rural company, I was asked by a relative to transform part of an old industrial building into a cozy home for his mother. I was in charge of all aspects of the project and executed all the work myself. And though there were some essential parameters to the project, I was able to create as I saw fit. The property had a sawmill and a fully equipped carpentry shop and so I had the capacity to build everything I designed. It took me 2 years to complete the house. I was 23 then and entered a fine art school afterwards.

What was a defining moment in your early development as an artist?

At age 16, I stopped watching television altogether, substituting it with reading books, writing poetry, drawing...making things. And more time was turned to questioning my future, my way of life and how to make it better. I would return to these periods of peaceful solitude nearly every day.  I would unconsciously build up a world of thoughts and ideas that would latter reflect my creative industriousness.

Describe your driving force or motivation to create artwork.

The realization of movement is my driving force. My aim is to translate kinetic energy in the patterns and in the things I make. My greatest satisfaction is when I am immersed in the production of artwork. Ultimately, my motivation is to find feeling in our living bodies and transfer emotional concerns to the world.