Look at the pictures
and in site as decorative elements 
It was a cold November evening in Milan; I was driving the stork crazy with all of my demands… I was looking for special parents, but more than that; all members of the extended family had to be out of the ordinary; I considered myself to be an artist and I wanted to be brought-up in the right hands. The bundle that Clotilde (the stork) carried with her long beak contained me and a box with colors and brushes. I was going to arrive equipped to show everyone what sort of a child they were dealing with…
“They would seem to be perfect for you’ Clotilde announced in a voice that could not be contradicted. ‘Look for yourself, child, your future mother is decorating the changing mat; your grandmother is making a cuddly toy to put into your cradle’. Then she dropped me into that home and flew away.
According to my mother, when I was small I was a pest, and wanted nothing to do with art; the only talent I showed was for getting into trouble. When I grew up, I realized that Clotilde had chosen a wonderful family for me; every member of the family possessed a creative soul that was expressed in different ways: my father was an inventor – he created a golf club with interchangeable heads, he invented children’s toys and much more.
My maternal grandmother was called Gesuella, her nickname was Gegè. She made toys from felt and gave them to her grandchildren – wonderful puppets for our little theater to large dolls: I remember when I was six years old, at Christmas I found a rag doll under the Christmas tree; she was as tall as me and was dressed with gym shoes and a striped tee-shirt; she had long yellow wool hair and a happy face with cute freckles across her nose. She was my playmate for many years. But this was not everything, her creativity went far beyond that. Before I was born, just after the Second World War, when my mother’s family had moved to South Africa, Gegè created a dress-making studio: she created fantastic high fashion clothes patterns that she had transformed into garments by young African girls that she trained. She had a loyal clientele of members of the local rich white Bourgeoisie.
Her sister Mariapia’s nickname was Mapì; she and her husband Bruno illustrated children’s books published by Casa Editrice Piccoli.
Their daughter Anna, known as Pupina, followed in their footsteps. She was a skilled painter and became an excellent portrait artist.
My mother Marialuisa was known as Pupa and chose a more modern activity that suited her and her lifestyle: she focused on interior furnishing and created an interesting studio that I joined when I completed my artistic studies.
My cousin Denis is also enormously creative: a writer, an antiquarian and a painter who spent many years searching for unusual items to sell on to major collectors around the world. Some years ago, when I was still involved in furnishing, he offered me a collection of children’s books that he had collected from the flea markets around Italy. They had been published by Edizioni Piccoli and surprise! surprise! all of the illustrations were by MAPi’, BRUNO and PUPINA. I was disconcerted for a moment because, leaving aside the sentimental value of the finds, I couldn’t imagine how I could use them. However, I had a strange feeling and decided to accept them as I was convinced that I would find a purpose for them in the future…”
And that was the case! I came across them recently when I was sorting out my enormous bookcase. I looked at them very closely and realized that the images that accompanied these simple sweet stories from times gone by were simply delicious. Chubby children and cuddly talking animals were the essence of ingenuity at that time where big and small lived a simple peaceful life.
An idea immediately started tickling my brain: why not use these beautiful drawings to produce my magical pictures?
And this is how the collection ‘Once upon a time’ came about. Naturally, the protagonists were the children of today, projected as though by magic, into a world of the past.
Following this same inspiration, I thought about using the equally delightful images of the Disney Fairytales or the films the company produced – for example, the recent production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.
