UK – USA
2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 – 2021
Wendy and her husband Howard Itzkowitz have become regular visitors to Il Palmerino. Wendy’s residencies take place in any season, and we like to call her ‘our youngest artist ever’. Her British wit has been tamed by a long stay in the United States and her creative exuberance is the driving force behind her large family’s development. Through her art, she seems to have the ability to seek renewal with the lightness of a butterfly, time and time again.
Her creative process progresses, as she tests her skills and follows her passions. Initially, it seemed, her artistic research was drawn to abstractionism in nature, as she embarked on a shape-based quest, accompanied by chromatic and material research. Later, however, she would feel the need to return to the figurative art, combining mixed media and alternative media. In fact, in her first body of works, displayed at the exhibition 'Seasons', and the series displayed the following spring, in 2017, one can see how the artist’s gaze is drawn to details that become multi-faceted and imaginative places. Over time, Wendy has started to depict images as they emerge in her imagination. The reading of Dante's Inferno, in translation, found on a shelf in her flat’s bookcase, triggered a new cycle of works inspired by the maestro's canticles.
Howard invece è più discreto con il suo tacquino e la sua mattita ama disegnare dettagli e piccole costruzioni e composizioni agresti che vengono dal suo background di professore di disegno architettonico. Ha un linea pulita e sapiente che riesce anche a compensare la briosa invenzione di Wendy. Sue sono le puntuali documentazioni degli angoli del giardino e anche un insieme di studi per realizzare una casa per le anatre con il bambù. Che vorremmo sempre di riuscire a realizzare sotto la sua guida.
Wendy and Howard hanno avuto a generous approach, nel workshops, with a class of students from the Liceo Artistico Alberti, a secondary school in Florence, whose students are struck by her inspiring and unconventional teaching methods e dalla accurata lezione di prospettiva di Howard. With a wink, she is now telling us she will not stop going back to Il Palmerino, until she manages to get as far as Paradise... ma senza l'aiuto di Howard non ci potrebbe arrivare!
In her own words
"In this chaotic world, Il Palmerino gives me kindness and intellect and possibilities."