Black Biscotti by Luca Dipierro

A Bolha

2012-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am working on three new short animations for A Bolha Editora.
Based out of Brazil, A Bolha is an amazing in-translation press. They publish both Brazilian writers in English translation and American writers in Portuguese translation. They also have a wonderful on-line shop selling graphic novels, art books, cutting-edge fiction (and my DVD Circo di Carta).

Mortality and Flatulence

2011-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

There is conversation between me and Edward Mullany on Big Other.
We talk about my zine Das Ding, illustration, art, mortality, flatulence.
Read it HERE.
Thanks to Edward Mullany for asking such intelligent questions.

Working on Until I Find it

2011-12-13T21:42:00.000-08:00

Ich stuend an einem Morgen

2011-11-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

The third issue of DAS DING is out. Ich stuend an einem Morgen is available from today. 24 pages of drawings, in full color.

It's only 6 dollars, shipping included, if you live in the USA (10 if you live elsewhere). You can look at a few pages (and support me by purchasing it) HERE.

The Butterflies

2011-10-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

There are a few screening of my latest animated film, The Butterflies, coming up.
The Butterflies has been commissioned me by Quartetto Prometeo with pianist Emanuele Torquati to accompany their execution of Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet (1985), which is the most beautiful and hypnotic piece of music I could ever hope to make images for/from. I learned a lot about my own work too, about what kind of movement I am interested in.

Dates and locations:
October 13, at Villa Bassi in Abano Terme, PD, Italy.
October 15, at Villa Romana, Firenze, Italy, as part of the music@villaromana festival.
November 23 at Teatro San Martin, Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of the 15th edition of Ciclos De Conciertos De Musica Contemporanea.

I identified with the monsters

2011-09-29T08:29:00.001-07:00

The Black Harbor has posted a short film/interview about my work directed by Mcnair Evans. It was shot in Asheville, NC about a year ago.
There is also an unedited transcription of a conversation between me and McNair on my front porch.

Thanks to the Black Harbor and McNair Evans for the beautiful film (and to Simon Lutrin for editing three days of footage into 5 minutes).

Also, the animation with the pig and the cigarette that I mention at the end of the film is Das Blaue Wunder (1935) by the great Hans Fischerkoesen.

Paper rackets

2011-09-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have made tiny rackets out of paper and thread. It took me a long time. They are for my new animated film (it looks like it's going to be titled The Butterflies).

A paper piano

2011-09-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a full length animation which has been commissioned me by Francesco Dillon of Quartetto Prometeo about a year ago. It's a seventy minutes film to be projected with the performance of Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet (1985). First concert/screening on October 12, at music@villaromana Festival in Florence. Then Padova on October 13, Milano on the 14th, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 23.
It has been an incredibly exciting, and, in terms of time and structure, challenging project. I have read Give My Regards to Eighth Street, Feldman's collection of essays, to get some ideas, but mostly listened to his music over and over. What I love of his work is the delicacy, the quietness that accumulates and becomes louder. I didn't try to use Feldman's world (not many visible things to hang on to): instead I tuned mine to his cadences.

I have made a piano of paper, with all the keys cut separately so they can "play."

I have started to incorporate more textural elements in my figures, using fabric, dirt, strings, hair, stones. I have been cutting little clothes out of book bindings.
Discarding old hardcover volumes makes you realize how much art used to be put into the production of books, what complex, stratified objects they were, with a weight and a consistency that paperbacks took away.

You've all had a chance to look at everything

2011-07-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is my drawing table in Portland, OR, my new home.
I am working on a one-panel illustration based on the beginning of Omensetter's Luck, for a William Gass tribute (in occasion of his 87th birthday on July 30).

Parrot, Bone

2011-06-29T05:03:00.000-07:00

I have a piece in the summer issue of JMWW. It's made of two different versions of the same story, one written by me, one by Leni Zumas. It's called Parrot, Bone.

Two screenings

2011-06-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am in a group show at Ono Arte Contemporanea, a new gallery in Bologna, Italy. The End as a Beginning opens on Thursday, June 16 at 6pm. There will be looped screenings of my animated films and a piece from a new series called Trittici.

There will be another screening of my animations on Friday, June 7 at The Orange Peel, in Asheville, NC, together with images and films from other artists to accompany the music of Ten Cent Poetry.

For the Cure of Fits

2011-05-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

The second issue of my art zine, DAS DING, is out. For the Cure of Fits is available from today. Words (a thing of lunar beauty) by Leni Zumas. Art by me.

It's only 6 dollars, shipping included, if you live in the USA (10 if you live elsewhere). You can look at a few pages (and support me by purchasing it) HERE.

"At the next nice restaurant you're in, at dinner, look around you and know that in a century everyone you see will be dead. Kindred inevitabilities are the fat truths studied in Luca Dipierro's DAS DING. Such pretty dark twists. Read them and weep."
Eugene Lim, author of Fog & Car

Cow, robotic arm

2011-05-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Wigleaf has named my story Inside a Cow It Must Be Dark one of the best 50 (very) short fictions of 2011. Thanks, Lily Hoang. And thanks to Eugene Lim for publishing the story in Harp & Altar.

Thanks to Claudio Morandini and to Minerva bookstore for setting up a skype presentation of my book Biscotti Neri, yesterday in Aosta. And thank to the people who came out to watch my face projected on a wall.
If I had the robotic arm invented by Margaret Atwood, I could have signed a few copies.

Biscotti Neri

2011-05-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

On May 15, Madcap Collective has published my first book of short fictions, Biscotti Neri: 140 pages, 27 stories, and a great cover by artist Paolo Moretti.

Biscotti Neri is available on the Madcap website, HERE, where you can also download a free CD with readings from the book set to music by Amuleto, Boxeur The Coeur, Gomma Workshop, Freddy Murphy & Chiara Lee, Littlebrown, Giancarlo DiTrapano, Bemydelay, Amerigo Ormea, Wolther Goes Stranger.

Here is the booktrailer:

On Saturday, May 21, at 6.30pm (Italian time) I will read from Biscotti Neri at Minerva bookstore in Aosta, through skype. With me, Claudio Morandini. I never did a reading on skype before.

DAS DING #2 almost ready

2011-05-04T08:02:00.001-07:00

DAS DING #2 is almost ready. Drawn, painted, cut out, glued by me. Words by Leni Zumas: expect spells.

Tre finzioni da Biscotti Neri

2011-04-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

Claudio Morandini and I talk (in Italian) about writing fiction, and about my book Biscotti Neri (coming out from Madcap in two weeks), on the Malicuvata blog.

Yesterday I finished editing a short film called Tre letture da Biscotti Neri. It's a visual interpretation of three readings from Biscotti Neri. The film will be my presence/projection on a short tour with author and musician frederico f.
Here are the dates:
Monday, May 2, at Libreria Altroquando, Roma
Tuesday May 3, at Forte Fanfulla, Roma
Tuesday May 3, at Dal Verme, Roma
Wednesday May 4, at Cuculia, Firenze
Thursday, May 5, at Progetto Sospeso, Genova

Biscotti Neri is born

2011-04-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

My first book of fictions Biscotti Neri is born. 27 stories, 140 pages.
It's an object that I can look at, touch, open, read, take pictures of, pose with like a newborn baby.

I love how it looks. I love the cover art by my friend Paolo Moretti. I love the size. I love the layout of the pages. I love that the text is set in Garamond 12 and not in Garamond 11 (Thanks, Leni).

The book will be officially out in Italy on May 15.

I have to thank:
Leni Zumas for all her love and intelligence and advice.
Paolo Moretti and frederico f. of Madcap for their passion, for making Biscotti Neri real.
Francesco Dillon, Michael Kimball, Jim Knipfel and Claudio Morandini for their help and support.

Us

2011-03-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

I made this cut-out animation for the novel Us by Michael Kimball. It's based on one single sentence.
Music by the great Tim Hurley (Red Red Meat, Sin Ropas)

Us is beautiful and heartbreaking. Pre-order it HERE.

Tomorrow in NYC

2011-03-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 2, there will be a screening of one of my animated film, All The Dogs He Loved Most in NYC. It's at Symphony Space, as part of Selected Shorts: Stories from Electric Literature, a multimedia evening with comedian Mike Birbiglia (Sleepwalk with Me), John Lithgow, Aya Cash (Traffic Light) and David Rakoff. It's at 7pm. Tickets available HERE.

Working on a new animation

2011-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

Stills from a new cut-out animation I am working on, for the novel Us by Michael Kimball.

Two things

2011-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for Washington, DC in a hour.
On Thursday, February 3 at 4.30 pm I will at be at AWP on a panel called Understanding Comics as Creative Writing. I will show, through some of my work, what for me is the deepest connection between writing and images.
With me on the panel: John Dermot Woods, Matt Madden, Gary Sullivan and Joseph Young.

This is the "official" description of the panel:

While the critical study of comics has been fully embraced by English Literature departments, Creative Writing programs have been slower to create a place for the practice of comics in their own curricula. Similarly, independent literary presses rarely publish comics, leaving that work to comics-specific houses. This panel features teachers and practitioners of the medium who will discuss ways to open up the Creative Writing field to the practice of comics (and other image-text literature).

I received PANK 5 in the mail, with great work by Deb Olin Unferth, Jamie Iredell, J.A. Tyler, Troy Urquhart, Laura McCullough, xTx, Kyle Minor and many, many ohers.
I made the cover art. I also have a story in it.
Get yourself a copy HERE.

DAS DING #1 is out

2011-01-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

The first issue of my art zine DAS DING is available from today.
It's called You Know What I Came For.
It's made of paper.
It's a 28-page, black-and-white, old-school-looking beauty, and wants to be seen by your eyes.
It's only 8 dollars, shipping included. You can buy it HERE.

Thanks to Leni Zumas for all the great editing suggestions, and to Henco Reprographics for the printing.

You Know What I Came For

2011-01-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

Cut-outs for a picture story I am working on.

Blood made of corn syrup

2010-12-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

For the past three days I've lived in front of the camera of McNair Evans, drawing, painting, cutting paper, talking, and doing whatever McNair asked me to do, including standing still in my backyard for two hours, while around me the snow was being colored blood-red with a mixture of corn syrup and fabric colorant.

It has been a truly great experience, flattering and also kind of exhausting. So much more than the simple Q/A I was expecting. McNair's has rendered his interpretation of my art with surreal sequences shot in stop animation. The footage, from the previews that I saw, looks amazing. Can't wait to see the final film.
Thanks again to McNair Evans and Ruth Ingram, and to the Black Harbor.

Here's a couple stills, directly from McNair's camera:

Ruth, McNair and me at the end of the second day of shooting.

Video interview for the Black Harbor

2010-12-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Black Harbor, a great online art magazine based out of SF, contacted me last week to shoot a video interview/documentary about my work.

Photographer McNair Evans will film me for three days, starting tomorrow.

It'll be interesting to be, for once, in front of the camera.

Asunder has been named one of the five best book trailers of 2010 by L Magazine

2010-12-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

My animation for Robert Lopez' Asunder (Dzanc, 2010), has been named one of the five best book-trailers of 2010 by L Magazine. The list is HERE.

Thanks to Ned Vizzini for including me, and for writing such great things about my work:

"Luca Dipierro, whose stop-motion cut-out animation feels like The Triplets of Belleville meets South Park, gorgeously juxtaposes excerpts from Robert Lopez's story collection with dreamlike imagery in this trailer with music by Sin Ropas. 'Every time I brush my teeth or shave it's a bloodbath,' Lopez writes, as Dipierro gives us a man brushing with a vertically oriented brush, as if trapped in a cubist painting, until he bleeds down his chin into a vermilion goatee."

Working on Das Ding

2010-11-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

I am putting out a zine with my art. It's called Das Ding.
Das Ding #1 will be available in a couple of months months, maybe earlier, together with a bunch of 12X18" posters of my illustrations, beautifully printed by Henco Reprographics in Asheville, NC.

I am reading The Child by Jules Vallès, translated by Douglas Parmée. It's great. One of the darkest novels about childhood that I have ever read.

Fhm Means Understanding

2010-11-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

I made another animation for the Understanding Campaign, a great project started by Haneen Alshujairy and Justin Sirois. More info HERE.

Screening in Baltimore

2010-11-15T07:55:00.001-08:00

On Thursday, November 18 at the Minas Gallery in Baltimore, there will be a screening of some of my short cut-out animations, together with work by Linda Franklin, Adam Robinson, Justin Sirois, Ron Tanner and Joseph Young. It's at 7pm.

The event is called Inkslingers and Flicksters, a Night of Short Films by Writerly Types.
Here is the description: "Enjambment gets discussed while eggs get poached, collage meets audio, microfiction is recorded, book characters are cut-out and animated, a turtle writes a novel in the sand, writing meets seeing meets understanding, love lamentation is voiced over, self portraits become poem... images and much, much more!"

Thanks to Heather Rounds for inviting me.

I have DVDs of my animations for sale. They are only 10 dollars (free shipping): HERE.

Butterfly

2010-11-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

Still from a new animation I am working on, for the Understanding Campaign.

Curtains

2010-11-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

Asunder

2010-10-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

I made this animated short for Asunder, Robert Lopez' incredible new collection of short fictions (Dzanc, November 16, 2010).

Music by Sin Ropas.

We Voice Sing

2010-10-05T11:46:00.001-07:00

This is my latest cut-out animation.
It's a video for the song We Voice Sing by Rich Ferguson, spoken word artist and Nervous Breakdown contributor based out of LA.
Music by Bo Blount and 10K Poets.

Paper Fishes

2010-09-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Fish, Violin

2010-09-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Started shooting We Voice Sing for Rich Ferguson. 700 pictures a day.

Two screenings of I Will Smash You

2010-09-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

There are two screenings of I Will Smash You, the first documentary I made with Michael Kimball, coming up.

One in Baltimore, MD at Minas Gallery on Thursday, September 16, 7pm.

And another one in Bay City, on September 17, at 7:30pm (doors at 6:30pm). A few segments from I Will Smash You will be screened as part of the Clean Shorts Film Festival.

If you can't go to the screenings, DVDs of I Will Smash You are available for sale HERE.

60 WRITERS/60 PLACES screening at The New School

2010-09-01T08:27:00.001-07:00

There will be a NYC screening of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES, the film I made with Michael Kimball, on Wednesday, September 22.
The place: Eugene Lang College, Wollman Hall, on 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor.
The time: 6PM.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with some of the authors in the film: Jennifer Firestone, Jim Knipfel, Eugene Lim, Robert Lopez, Sam Lipsyte, Robert Lopez, Eileen Myles, Leigh Newman, Dawn Raffel, and Leni Zumas. I will be there too.
The event is free and open to the public.

DVDs of 60/60 are for sale here.

3 fishes, 1 fat Elvis, 1 carny, 1 violin, 2 drums, 1 skull, 1 trombone, 4 buildings

2010-08-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

I started working on a new animation. It's a 5 minutes music video, a commission I've got last week from Rich Ferguson, a spoken word artist based out of LA. It'll be delirious.

Drawn today: 3 fishes, 1 fat Elvis, 1 carny, 1 violin, 2 drums, 1 skull, 2 birds, 1 trombone, 4 buildings. A lot more to draw.

Listening to The Painted Word by the Television Personalities.
1984.
I have been obsessed with this album for a long time. Fifteen years.

If you're in Germany, Dan Treacy and band will play in Hamburg on September 4.

Father Sin

2010-08-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

This will be the best live show you'll see this year.
Sin Ropas + Father Murphy will tour the US in September.
They asked me to make a tour flyer and this is it.

These are the dates for now, but keep checking the bands websites for more:

8 Chapel Hill, NC @ Night Light
9 Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone
10 Atlanta, GA @ 529
11 Asheville, NC @ Bobo
12 Knoxville, TN @ The Pilot Light
15 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
16 Minneapolis, MN @ Kitty Cat Klub
17 Madison, WI @ The Lodge
19 Bloomington, IN @ Rachel's

Her Visitor Is the Earth's Smallest Man

2010-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

The fourth installment of Until I Find It, the picture novel I am making with Leni Zumas is up at Giganticmag.com.
Also in this issue: an interview with Amy Hempel by Nathan C. Martin, and work by John Dermot Woods and Ashley Farmer.

AWP 2011

2010-08-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

AWP 2011: I will be on a panel called Understanding Comics as Creative Writing. With me, talking about images and words: John Dermot Woods, Matt Madden, Gary Sullivan and Joseph Young.
Thanks to John Dermot Woods for inviting me.

This is the "official" description of the panel:

While the critical study of comics has been fully embraced by English Literature departments, Creative Writing programs have been slower to create a place for the practice of comics in their own curricula. Similarly, independent literary presses rarely publish comics, leaving that work to comics-specific houses. This panel features teachers and practitioners of the medium who will discuss ways to open up the Creative Writing field to the practice of comics (and other image-text literature).

AWP 2011 will happen in Washington, DC, from February 2 to February 5.

Working on Asunder

2010-08-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

I am working on a new animation for Robert Lopez' Asunder (Dzanc, 11.16.2010).

I started from this sentence: "Every time I brush my teeth or shave it's a bloodbath."
It took me four days to read the book, have ideas, make a storyboard, and draw, paint, cut out all the figures and backgrounds.
Today is the second and last day of shooting. Editing will take one day.
The music will be composed and played, once again, by Sin Ropas. I love to work with them. It'll be a more foley-like soundtrack than usual.

Listening to The Curse of Zoundz right now. What a great album. 1981.

I didn't go on vacation but I made these things

2010-08-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

I made this animation for Our Island of Epidemics by Matthew Salesses (PANK, 10.01.2010). Music by Sin Ropas (composed and recorded in one day).

I was also asked to draw seven more illustrations for Our Island, to be printed on the blank pages. They are in black and white. Here's one.

Yesterday a new art store (the one I painted the signs for) opened in Marshall, NC. It's called Foreverland. Here's an interview with owner Danni Iosello (who also plays in Sin Ropas: full circle).
Foreverland will sell my art too, among other artists' and designers' work. Just for the store I made a series of cut-outs/paintings on cheese containers. I'll make more.

New animations

2010-08-03T09:50:00.001-07:00

I uploaded on my youtube channel segments of animations taken from my newest work. The music is by Amuleto (Francesco Dillon & Riccardo Wanke).

Pictures of Lugocontemporanea

2010-08-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

Some incredible pictures of last week's performance of Amuleto at Lugocontemporanea: music + screening of my animated films. The event took place in a piazza in Lugo (province of Ravenna, Italy) in front of the Oratorio di Sant'Onofrio, built in 1679.
I love the idea that everybody could walk by and listen to the music and watch the films.
The pictures were taken by Elisa Caldana. Visit Elisa here.

Moths Watched Me Paint

2010-07-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

More pictures of the signs I made for Foreverland, a new art store/space opening in Marshall NC.
I want to do more outdoor painting. If you want me to paint figures on a wall or sign, contact me at lucadipierro[at]yahoo[it]

Store Signs. Steinberg

2010-07-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was asked to paint two store signs. I never did anything like that before, and the store will sell great vintage stuff and art in downtown Marshall, NC: two reasons to say yes. Also, I love store signs and all kind of signs.

I started painting on Wednesday. More today. It's such a different physical experience than sitting at a table. You don't have a place where to rest your arms. Also, there is the sun. In my studio, I have shades to keep it out.
I was surprised of how natural it came to draw and paint on a large scale. I was worried about the lines, the creases of hands, bellies, necks, that they wouldn't show up. To my surprise, they do. A wall is a big sheet of paper, with more texture. In fact it's not a wall I am painting on, but wood. And paper is made of wood.

Saul Steinberg said great things about store signs in Reflections and Shadows, a book that I never get tired of reading. It's one of those books that I often consider keeping under my pillow, instead that on a shelf.

"Much of Magritte derives from sign painting, especially when he has to depict a human figure. The whole Surrealist school tries to show man as a cliché, the standard figure copied on signs from the fashion journals of the day."

Steinberg considered himself a writer who drew instead of writing. I love that. I love the way he did not write what he did not write.

Steinber wrote letters though. There is a great volume of letters to Aldo Buzzi, Lettere a Aldo Buzzi 1945-1999, published in Italy by Adelphi.

Screening in Lugo with Amuleto

2010-07-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

On July, Friday 23, in Lugo (province of Ravenna, Italy), as a part of the 6th edition of Lugocontemporanea, there will be a live show by Amuleto with a screening of my animated films.

Amuleto is the new incredible musical project of Francesco Dillon and Riccardo Wanke (the name is inspired by a Roberto Bolaño book). If you are interested in impro/experimental/drone music, I highly recommend their new CD, put out by Die Schachtel.

The theme of this year’s Lugocontemporanea is "Inferni: strategie di sopravvivenza," which means something like "Hell: Strategies of Survival."

I am honored that Francesco and Riccardo of Amuleto asked me to screen my work to go with their music. I edited a 45 minutes flow of images, old and new work, including segments of a never-screened-before animated series called Prestidigitazioni. The show starts at 9.30 pm at the Area di Chiesa di S. Onofrio.

The whole festival is pretty amazing: music, visual art, poetry, installation. Check out the program.

Art for Pank

2010-07-16T07:40:00.001-07:00

I worked on a bunch of art for Pank Magazine in the past two weeks. I submitted a picture story called This Bird Can Kill Us and it'll be printed in the next issue and if you want to read it you have to buy the magazine. There will be a lot of great work in it. Pre-orders here.

I made the cover of Pank 5. too, which I can't wait to see printed.

Also, I made the cover for a new book they are publishing (in the Pank Little Books series), which is one of the best things I have read this year, Our Island of Epidemics by Matthew Salesses. I never felt that close to the world of anybody I made art for. You really need to get this book. It's surreal, imaginative (in a wonderful minor key), and written in a language that is both lyrical and dry. It has the deadpan quality that I like in things. It's the Television Personalities and Cyrano de Bergerac together. Preorder it here.

Art for Mostly Spinach

2010-07-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

I made this art for the cover of Mostly Spinach, a collection of poems by Joseph Goosey, available from Virgogray Press.

The Need To Shut Up. On Why, How and What I Draw.

2010-07-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

1) My art starts from my obsession with books. Books are objects. They are maps of the world containing pictures and words. To me, pictures and words are very close. Michel Butor writes: “Painting is also something we read… literature is also something we look at.”

2) My art is small. Reduction multiplies space. I draw and paint on paper, then cut out the figures and glue them on discarded book covers or found boards. My cut-outs are often so small that I need tweezers to move them and a lens to see them: minuscule teeth, nails, eyelids, drops of blood or sweat. The best way to look at my art is to get as close as you can and to read it like a book.

3) My art is made of figures. These figures come from other figures. It’s thirty-seven years that my eyes collect images. My head is full of them. My figures are mostly faces. They are made of paper, but somehow they have a sparkle of desire of not being made of paper.
There are bodies too, and things that come out of bodies’ orifices: words, farts, smoke, breath. There are houses, and there are animals and masks. All figures are cut-outs because I don’t see the world as a whole and I don’t want to represent it that way. Nothing is a whole. Everything is in pieces. Our bodies are in pieces. I like to put the pieces together.

4) I like paint, glue, ink. I like art that you can see with your fingers. In my work, texture is the trace of the work: the pressure of the pen in my hand, the position of my body on the chair, my time spent, the imperfections of paper, the smudges of ink that my thumbs leave. Texture is when figures come from different sources, when figures look, to the fingers, different.

5) I am not a painter. Often my pieces are referred to as “paintings.” They are not paintings. There is paint on them. But the figures are drawn before they are painted. The main influence of my painting technique are children’s coloring books. I haven’t found a good word for my pieces yet. Maybe “cut-outs.” I like “drawings” too, because everything starts form drawing.

6) I started using my art to make animated films when I realized that animation is the core of my art-making process. In constructing my pieces, I move the cut-outs on the surface, looking for dynamics, narratives, until I find a placement I like. My animations document the way I make my pieces. I wish my pieces would keep moving like my animations, instead of being the same all the time. Ultimately it’s my pieces that document my animations.

7) My work as an artist is strictly related to my work as a writer. My drawings are illustrations for unwritten stories. Illustrated books (and I don’t mean only comics or graphic novels) are for me one of the highest examples of the possibilities of combining words and images, literature and visual art. Illustrations seem to be just a comment about the text, but in fact they are a parallel text. Illustrations cheat: they seem to tell the same story as the words, but in fact they open other possibilities. Illustrations remind me of the presence of the unwritten world waiting right outside the border of the page. My drawings live in the blanks of language – they are a sort of anti-language, of anti-literature. I need to draw because otherwise I would collapse under the weight of my own words. I make art when I feel the need to shut up.

"A dead bear was found in the stream."

2010-07-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

I made this animation for Jessica Anya Blau's new novel, Drinking Closer to Home. Coming January 18, 2011 from Harper Perennial.

Music by Mahmoud Guinia.
Art and animation by me.

Biscotti neri

2010-07-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

My book of fictions Biscotti neri will be published in Italy by Madcap at the beginning of 2011. March, probably. I am happy and honored to be part of the Madcap family. I love those guys. I wouldn't want my first book to be anywhere else. Biscotti neri is a declaration of love and a fuck-you to the beauty and complexity of my first language, Italian.

There is a cover already. The illustration is by Paolo Moretti, who is an amazing artist and musician and a good friend. Also, I got two great blurbs for the book and a third one is on the way.
If you read Italian, go here.

Brother Would Never Leave

2010-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have a picture story in the Summer issue of JMWW. It's called Brother Would Never Leave. Look at/read it HERE.

The flash fiction sections curated by John Madera and Dave Erlewine are fantastic: work by Robert Coover, Kim Chinquee, Jeremy M. Davis, Brian Evenson, Lily Hoang, Tim Horvath, Joanna Howard, James Iredell, Brian Kiteley, Norman Lock, Robert Lopez, Sean Lovelace, Stacy Muszynski, Ken Sparling, Terese Svoboda, J. A. Tyler, Jane Hammons, Jensen Beach, Ryan Ridge, Bonnie ZoBell, Jon-Michael Frank, R. A. Allen.

Soon Someone's

2010-06-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Third installment of Until I Find It, the picture novel I am making with Leni Zumas, up at Gigantic.

Holy Broken, this Sunday

2010-06-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, June 13th at 9 pm at GREY EAGLE in Asheville, NC, Sin Ropas will present their last CD Holy Broken.
Tim Hurley and Danni Iosello were in great bands in the 90's (Red Red Meat, Califone, Loftus, Pure etc), but Sin Ropas is great beyond comparisons.

I will screen my short cut-out animations, and some new video work that I've never shown before.

Here is the artwork I did for the Holy Broken CD. Honored Tim and Danni asked me to do it.

Check out the European version by the great Paolo Moretti, here.

And here's a video I made with four or five takes of Sin Ropas playing in their basement. The sound is from the first take.

Write-up on Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are blog

2010-06-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

On the the official blog of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are there is a very nice write-up about my work, HERE.
Thanks!

David Markson

2010-06-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

David Markson died this weekend. His work states that the existence of the novel is arbitrary, that the novel has whichever rules we decide it to have.

Anstreicher Tears

2010-05-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

I made this for Rozalia Jovanovic's Manual for a Productive Everyday Life, up at Everyday Genius for the past week: 24 writers/editors/artists/musicians, 24 postcards, 5 tasks.

My task was: Fill this space with questionable content.

More about the project here.
Check it out: there is a lot to look at/read.

In conversation with Ken Baumann

2010-05-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

In conversation with Ken Baumann on HTMLGIANT: making art, (not) making money, birthing, drinking coffee, farting around, bursting.

Thanks, Flavorwire

2010-05-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Flavorwire for including two of my animations in the list of their favorite booktrailers that didn't make it to the Moby Awards finals: Andy Devine's Words and Dawn Raffel's Further Adventures in the Restless Universe.

If you want to see more on my animations, the way they are meant to be seen, I have handmade DVDs for sale HERE.
For the first ten people who buy the DVD, I'll include a drawing on paper.

Double screening in LA

2010-05-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

There will be a double screening of the films I made with Michael Kimball, I WILL SMASH YOU and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES, on Thursday, May 20, in Los Angeles.
The time is 10pm. The place is Sunset 5 Theater. The event is free.
Thanks to the great Ken Baumann for setting up the event.

If you can't make it, we have DVDs of 60 WRITERS and I WILL SMASH YOU for sale. It's only $12 individually (free shipping in the USA) and $20 for both: HERE.

"FIHM" Means "Understanding."

2010-05-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

I made this animation for the Understanding Campaign, a great initiative started by Justin Sirois.

Join the campaign here: www.understandingcampaign.org

The Understanding Campaign wants everyone in the world to read just one word of Arabic. Through true understanding we can break down stereotypes and taboos our mission is to begin with a single word.
It's pronounced "FIHM." It means "Understanding."

Music by the Nath Family.

Jakov Lind

2010-05-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

Eine Seele aus Holz by Jakov Lind (Soul of Wood in the Nyrb Classics translation by Ralph Manheim) is the best book I have read in 2010. It's also the best book I have read in 2009. It's the best book I've read in the past five years and maybe in the past ten years and maybe it's the best book I have ever read.

There is also a great collection of essays about Jakov Lind, which will be impossible to find very soon: Writing after Hitler: The Work of Jakov Lind, edited by Andrea Hammel.

A "Marvelous and Gem-Like Revelation"

2010-05-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

There is a really great and attentive review of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES by Wyatt Williams in today's Creative Loafing, which ends like this: "The lack of logical or narrative structure actually creates a sense of suspense — you start wondering which writer and place will come next, only to be confounded by each marvelous and gem-like revelation."

60 WRITERS/60 PLACE will be screened on Friday, May 14. at 8 pm, at Eyedrum in Atlanta, after a reading by Zachary Schomburg and Ann Stephenson.
Event starts at 8PM.

If you can't make it, we have DVDs of 60 WRITERS and I WILL SMASH YOU for sale. It's only $12 individually (free shipping in the USA) and $20 for both: HERE

I said, Bird who took these heads?

2010-05-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

The second installment of UNTIL I FIND IT, the illustrated book I am making with Leni Zumas, is online at Gigantic.

Also, new fiction by Erik Morsink, M. Callen and Mike Young, and a conversation between Joe Wenderoth and Gibby Haines of the Butthole Surfers.

If you haven't read the first installment of UNTIL I FIND IT, you still can, here.

Buy yourself some Boring Machines

2010-05-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

If you like challenging music, go buy yourself some HERE.

Boring Machines is one of the most adventurous music labels I know. It's run by my friend Onga (former Martini Bros djset, Basemental). Onga is awesome.
Music for your eyes.

I made the artwork for this: QUIT HAVING FUN compilation. 2XCD. 23 artists.

Article in the Mountain Xpress

2010-05-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

There is a really great article about my art in the Mountain Xpress (the Asheville City Paper) today: http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2010/050510artillery

Thanks to Ursula Gullow for saying that my art is "enchanting and macabre all at once" and that my animation are a "must-see."

You can buy handmade DVD of my animations HERE.

60 WRITERS/60 PLACES in Atlanta

2010-05-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

There is a screening of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES coming up. It's in Atlanta, on May 14, at Eyedrum, after a reading by Zachary Schomburg & Ann Stephenson.
Event starts at 8PM.

If you can't make it, we have DVDs of 60 WRITERS and I WILL SMASH YOU for sale. It's only $12 individually (free shipping in the USA) and $20 for both: HERE.

Ringraziamenti

2010-05-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

My show CIRCO DI CARTA opened yesterday at Hip Replacements, on 72 N. Lexington Ave in Aheville, NC.
Thanks to Franzi and Kip of Hip Replacements for the opportunity of showing my work, and thanks to all the people who came out, and a special thanks to Leni, because without her nothing would be possible.

The show will be up until the end of May.

Marc Bolan mi guarda mentre lavoro.

Paper comes alive tonight

2010-04-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Opening of my show at Hip Replacements tonight: Asheville, NC. 72 N. Lexington Avenue. 7pm.
There will be some of my newest work, including a part of a big piece called Trilogia della Fine dei Corpi, which is inspired by Rabelais and Pasolini and Frank Henenlotter and Jacopone da Todi.
I will screen some of my animation too.

2010 Moby Awards

2010-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Melville House has announced the 1st Annual Moby Awards for best and worst book trailers. Here.

These are my last two animated booktrailers, for Andy Devine's WORDS (Publishing Genius, 2010) and for Dawn Raffel's Further Adventures in the Restless Universe (Dzanc, 2010):

If you like them, and you have a minute to nominate one or both of them, you'll have my gratitude. Go here and post a comment.

Thanks!

Paper Circus

2010-04-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

There is a nice write-up about my animations for Electric Literature in the Faster Times. Thanks, Lincoln Michel.

If you want to see more of my animations, and on big screen, come to the opening of my show in Asheville, NC, on Friday April 30, at Hip Replacements (72 N. Lexington Ave.). 7pm.

Handmade DVDs of my short animations are available. They are only $10, free shipping. 8 copies left. Here.

New animation for Electric Literature

2010-04-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

The great Electric Literature commissioned me another animation. It's based on one sentence from the story "The Tunnel" by Jenny Offill, in Electric Literature n.3: "They say time turns hawkish, that you feel it like a wing crossing over you".
The music is by Sin Ropas.

The animation went up today and already got two nice write-ups, on L Magazine, who calls it "sad and beautiful," and on Mediabistro.

Until I Find It #1

2010-04-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Leni Zumas and I have been working on an illustrated book called Until I Find It. It's one of the most exciting projects I have ever been part of. Words by Leni. Art by me.

Gigantic Magazine, in its online incarnation, will serialize Until I Find It: one chapter each month, which is great.

Read the first installment here.

The Gigantic April issue has also great work by Sam Lipsyte, John Minichillo, John Dermot Woods, Lauren Spohrer, Claudette Bakhtiar, Dan Moreau, Franklin Winslow.

Until I Find It is loosely based on a full length animated film Leni and I are working on. Art an animation by me. Words by Leni. Music by Father Murphy.

WORDS

2010-04-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

I made this animation for WORDS, an incredible book by Andy Devine published by Publishing Genius.
Buy it here.

Fictionaut Five Interview

2010-03-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

Meg Pokrass asks me a few questions about books and films on Fictionaut.

In San Francisco tomorrow

2010-03-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

If you are in San Francisco tomorrow, Wednesday, March 31, you should go see/hear Leni Zumas and Jennifer L. Knox and Ryan Boudinot. They read at 7:30PM in Fromm Hall. It's part of the Emerging Writers Festival at USF. It'll be great.

The Harp & Altar Anthology

2010-03-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

The Harp & Altar Anthology is out, and it's on paper.
It's a fantastic book, collecting the ground-breaking poetry and fiction from the first six issues of the online journal.

Edited by Keith Newton and Eugene Lim.
With writing by Roberta Allen • Stephanie Anderson • Jason Bacasa • Andrea Baker • Jessica Baran • Jessica Baron • Shane Book • Donald Breckenridge • Michael Carlson • Joshua Cohen • Julia Cohen • Adam Clay • Lynn Crawford • Oisín Curran • Claire Donato • Farrah Field • Corey Frost • David Goldstein • Andrew Grace • Kate Greenstreet • Sarah Gridley • Emily Gropp • Evelyn Hampton • Jennifer Hayashida • Stefania Heim • Lily Hoang • Joanna Howard • Dan Hoy • Thomas Kane • Steve Katz • Karla Kelsey • Joanna Klink • Jennifer Kronovet • Norman Lock • Jill Magi • Justin Marks • Peter Markus • Eugene Marten • Stephen-Paul Martin • Zachary Mason • Miranda Mellis • Sara Michas-Martin • Patrick Morrissey • Ryan Murphy • Eileen Myles • Bryson Newhart • Linnea Ogden • Cameron Paterson • Johannah Rodgers • Joanna Ruocco • Elizabeth Sanger • Rob Schlegel • Zachary Schomburg • Kate Schreyer • Andrei Sen-Senkov • Brandon Shimoda • Peter Jay Shippy • Joanna Sondheim • Mathias Svalina • Bronwen Tate • G.C. Waldrep • Derek White • Jared White • Joshua Marie Wilkinson • Paul Winner • David Wirthlin • Michael Zeiss • Leni Zumas.

Buy it here from the great Ellipsis Press.

Harp & Altar #7

2010-03-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

Harp & Altar #7 is online. I have a story called Inside a Cow It Must Be Dark in it.
Also great work by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Ana Božičević, Matthew Klane, Michael O’Brien, Alejandra Pizarnik translated by Jason Stumpf, Brett Price, Jared White, Edmond Caldwell, Susan Daitch, Craig Foltz, A.D. Jameson, Matthew Kirkpatrick, and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Farrah Field, Patrick Morrissey, Michael Newton, Brandon Downing.

60 WRITERS/60 PLACES in Marshall, NC tonight

2010-03-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

There is a screening of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES tonight in Marshall, NC. The place is Good Stuff. The time is 7.30pm.

You can buy 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES and I WILL SMASH YOU on DVD here.

Great review of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES

2010-03-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Matt Bell posted a really great, attentive review of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES on his website.
Among other things, Matt says that in the film the writers are "transformed via the mere act of reading their own words, their bodies stepping out of their everyday location--a subway car, a garden, a supermarket--into some space more electric."

You can buy 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES on DVD here.

In Austin tonight

2010-03-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES will be screened tonight in Austin, TX as part of the second installment of the Teleportal Readings. Nick Courtright and Richard Lange will read.

We have DVDs of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES for sale. Buy them here.

Here is an outtake with Rachel Sherman holding her daughter.

Gigante numero due

2010-02-28T06:48:00.001-08:00

I just got the new issue of Gigantic in the mail. It's one of the best-looking literary magazines I have ever seen. It makes me want to read it, which does not happen with 99% of the literary magazines I see.
I have a story called Black Biscotti in it.
It's great to be in the company of Leni Zumas, Sasha Fletcher, Michael Kimball, Sam Lipsyte, Lydia Millet, Adrian Tomine, Joe Wenderoth, Ben Segal, Robert Coover, Clancy Martin, Ken Sparling and all the other contributors. You can meet them here.

Butter on Cane

2010-02-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

I made this video for Sin Ropas. Tim Hurley and Danni Iosello play Butter on Cane in studio, from the album Trickboxes on the Pony Line (2003).
Their new album, Holy Broken, will be out in April 2010 on Shrug Records.

I made the video editing one hour of footage. The sound is the recording of the first take.
I don't know many bands who can play like this.

We made these films for you

2010-02-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

If you're in Baltimore, don't miss the double feature at Creative Alliance on Sunday, February 21st: 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES and I WILL SMASH YOU.
Doors at 6:30, screening at 7:30.

More info here.

Also, we have DVDs of both films available. It's 12 dollars for each of them, and 20 for both. Free shipping in the USA. Buy them here.

We made these films for you.

DVDs of I WILL SMASH YOU and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES on sale

2010-02-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

The DVDs of the two films I made with Michael Kimball, I WILL SMASH YOU and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES, are finally available for sale.
It's 12 dollars (free shipping in the USA) for each of them, and 20 dollars (free shipping in the USA) if you get them both.

If you don't live in the USA, write me at lucadipierro[at]yahoo[dot]it and we will figure out something.

Buy I WILL SMASH YOU and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES HERE.

You have never seen films like these.

The Art of Coffins DVD

2010-02-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

Limited edition handmade DVDs with my animations on sale here. It's only 12 dollars, shipping included.
Handmade: the covers have been drawn, painted and cut out one by one, which is insane and that is why you should buy it. It’s not only a DVD, but a piece of original artwork.

You can choose between three separate cover artworks:
1) Weinende Papagei (crying parrot)
2) Upside Down (feet)
3) One Red Note (messenger playing trumpet)

I made 50 of each kind. Only 10 One Red Note left.

Nikki Sudden in my headphones right now.

Show in Milano

2010-02-08T08:37:00.001-08:00

The third installment of my Italian touring solo show is in Milano. Opening on Saturday, February 13 at Younite, Viale Bligny, 42.
Thanks to Federico Zanatta of Father Murphy, incredible as usual, and to Barnaba Ponchielli of Edizioni Zero for setting up the exhibition.

February 21st.

2010-02-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

Because of the snowstorm, the double feature of 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES and I WILL SMASH YOU at Creative Alliance in Baltimore has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 21st. Doors at 630pm; screening at 730pm.

Nice interview with Michael Kimball and write-up about 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES in the Baltimore City Paper.

The reviewer calls 60 Writers "a wonderful example of literary thinking becoming a visual language" and calls both our documentaries "disarmingly engaging".

Double feature in Baltimore

2010-02-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

The two documentaries that I made with Michael Kimball, I WILL SMASH YOU and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES will be screened at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore on February 5th. Doors at 6, screening at 7pm.

www.littleburnfilms.com

Snow Vs. Coffins

2010-01-30T08:36:00.000-08:00

My show at the the Madison Arts Council opened yesterday, despite the snow.
It was a great night. People were warm and receptive. I talked about my art and my background (Italian-atheist-catholic boy fetishing books and punk rock records), and screened some of my animations, which made people look at my art with different eyes.
Thanks to everybody who came out and supported me and bought my art. Thanks to Leni for driving me around and helping me in setting up the show (it looks great, thanks to her) and for everything else that she did. Thanks to Erich (in Man or Astro Man and in dozens of other bands) of the Arts Council for organizing the show.

The Art of Coffins will be up until the end of February.

Show in Berlin

2010-01-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

I will have a solo show in Berlin in the Fall.
I lived in Berlin in the 90's. It's my favorite city in the world.
I am really excited about it.
More details to come.

On not telling stories

2010-01-22T19:06:00.001-08:00

I am making bigger pieces in these days. I use wooden boards. The cut-outs are paper, and always small, often insanely small, but I am composing them in bigger narratives.

I am not interested in art that tells a story, but in art that contains potential stories and never tells them.

I just finished a tryptic. I am happier about it than I've ever been with anything I've made so far I think. It's called Tre Annunciazioni, which means Three Annunciations.

I am listening to Skullflower a lot lately.

This one is called Blue Birds Escape from the Prison of my Body.

Freshly baked biscotti

2010-01-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Uploaded a bunch of new art.

In Their Graves on Rockit

2010-01-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

Rockit.it, the most important Italian music website, is broadcasting In Their Graves, the animation I made for Father Murphy. It's an exclusive, so they asked me to take the video off youtube. Until January 25, you can watch it here.

Review in the Huffington Post

2010-01-15T10:32:00.001-08:00

In the Huffington Post, there is a very nice write up of my animation for Dawn Raffel's new collection of short stories, Further Adventures in the Restless Universe, available in March from Dzanc Books.
Thanks to the reviewer for saying that my animation is "incredible" and that it "balances creepy and charming perfectly."

I am making a bunch of new pieces for my solo show opening in two weeks in North Carolina.
I will also screen a preview of my full length film DIECI TESTE, which will be graced by the words of Leni Zumas and by the music of Father Murphy.

Holy Broken

2010-01-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Cover art I made for the new record by Sin Ropas, Holy Broken. It will be released in a couple months by Shrug Records.
Sin Ropas are Tim Hurley and Danni Iosello. Tim played in Red Red Meat, and Danni played in Pure, Califone and other bands.
Sin Ropas make music that sounds like Sin Ropas. They are great.

The cover for the European edition of the album was made by the great Paolo Moretti, artist, musician, friend.

Further Adventures in the Restless Universe

2010-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the animation I made for Dawn Raffel's new collection of short stories, Further Adventures in the Restless Universe. It's an incredible book. Dzanc, March 2010.

The Air and Its Relatives

2010-01-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

Finishing a short animation for Dawn Raffels' new collection of short stories, Further Adventures in the Restless Universe. It should be online soon.