“More of me comes out when I improvise.”
— Edward Hopper.

Edward Hopper’s paintings have been occupying my thoughts quite a bit lately. There’s something about those pictures which talks to me in some way. They have a strong theatrical element and an intense dramatic narrative. I’m fascinated by the bits of the story that are not told, the things left unsaid. Human sensibilty, like nature, dislikes vacuum and unfilled spaces become fields for the play of our imagination and desires.

Something intimate is revealed in a very detailed way, yet blurred enough to leave space for the imagination to construct its own stories. There’s silences and empty spaces, it’s “the breathless midpoint of an unkown story”. We witness a non-eventful moment, a pregnant pause and we are drawn into the expansive yet focused stories of the people and of the spaces. It’s a defined moment in time which, at the same time, seems to dilate. And it actually does that, as soon as our immagination kicks in and begins making up stories around the pictures: what has just happened? what is about to happen?

These have become compelling topics for me and there seems to be room for some stimulating research. I can see the attention going on the minutia, the small dance, the tiny events that happens as you listen; it’s the moment just before or just after an event; it’s cellular fluid; it’s connective tissue.