WATSONIA artist Marcello D’Amico has always had a calling. In the 1940s, as a boy on Salina Island north of Sicily, he enjoyed drawing on the brown paper the groceries were wrapped in.
As an adventurous teenager studying for the priesthood, he begged his parents to let him travel to Australia to be with his older siblings (his parents followed five years later). At 16, he was accepted into the National Gallery Art School (now VCA), before he studied sculpture at RMIT. More than 60 years later, and D’Amico has participated in more than 60 exhibitions. His current solo show, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, is a celebration of the mature human body. “Sometimes we forget that the older you get, in some ways [the] more beautiful you get. Not the stereotypical beauty but a different type of beauty, which is not skin deep. It comes from the heart and the soul.”
The series of (mostly) drawings and sculptures at South Yarra’s Italian Institute of Culture was inspired by Ulysses’ 10-year journey home in Odyssey, the Greek poem by Homer.
“The anonymity and poses are influenced by the sirens in Homer’s epic,” D’Amico says. “It’s a long journey that Ulysses did and this is part of my long journey, from when I was born to now and whatever I’ve got left.”
D’Amico considers a quadruple heart bypass 15 months ago his second chance at life – he threw himself back into work after leaving hospital.
“I’m 71 now, so I’m more mature – not so much wiser – but still trying to experiment with what I do rather than get in a comfort zone,” he says.
D’Amico excels not only in painting and sculpture but in writing poetry, (he still writes for a Canadian magazine and an Italian website), playing music (he can play guitar, mandolin, flute and trumpet) and working on stage, screen and television.
In 2002, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for his contribution to visual and performing arts, and in 2009 he won Victoria’s multicultural award for his contribution to multicultural arts.
“I concentrated for a long time on my performing arts, even though I was still drawing and painting,” he says. “Fifteen years ago I said now the kids (he and wife Pauline have a son and daughter) have grown up, I can do what I want.”
Far from settling down, D’Amico went on 17 trips, from pilgrimages to his homeland to trips to the Sahara.
“What tomorrow brings, I don’t know. I’m hoping something totally different comes out because, realistically, it’s the last stretch of my life. At least I can say I’ve tried. Whether I’ve succeeded, I don’t know, but that has never been my aim. My aim has been to entertain and get people back to do art.”
The Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow exhibition will be accompanied by workshops, which he’ll run off the cuff.
“I’m trying to give something back to the people, enjoying what I see and the response,” D’Amico says.
One of his most memorable reactions came in Canada seven years ago, during an exhibition of similar works. An older woman approached him with tears in her eyes and said: “Marcello, I want to say thank you. After looking at your work, for the first time in many years I’m going to look in the mirror and say, ‘Rachel, you are beautiful’.”
