We recently connected with Francesca Borgo and have shared our conversation below.

Francesca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

It’s fun for me to think that, being an artist, my main need was originally pretty egoistical. I love to paint – from ideation to the physical act of painting – because that takes me to places of the mind where I feel comfortable, in balance. Outside and inside are at peace and I see that as a meaningful way to be in this world.

Then, I stepped out of the studio to participate in direct art fairs (where the artists, not galleries, are present in the booth and meet visitors). In these fairs I had the chance to meet art collectors, seeing how perfect strangers relate to the painting. It’s been unexpected and wonderful to see how, in several occasions, viewers stopped in front of the painting, eyes journeying all around. And then experiencing emotions, from curiosity to relief, from calmness to a feeling of power.

That often led to chats about how we need certain emotions and feelings in our lives, and how paintings can trigger those feelings, and can meet needs that are often difficult to word out clearly. I believe it’s a need of transcendence, to touch intimate aspects of our existence, where we are perhaps more fragile, but also more authentic.

Somehow making art helped me to pass from ‘I’ to ‘them’ to ‘we’. Painting is now a silent way to dialogue with people I’ve never met before in my life, to emotionally touch them and be touched.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Painting and drawing have always been part of my life since I was kid. However it didn’t occurred to me that this could be a profession and for many years, moving from psychology to brain sciences to sport psychology, it was just my passion. Then, during an illness that got me stuck at home for a while, painting filled my days, quickly filling up my free time. Then it became a daily necessity. When I acknowledged that need, I decided to make the most drastic change in my professional life and took a part time job, to dedicate the rest to art. I realize now it’s been almost 10 years since that pivotal moment. Looking back, all my previous jobs are part of me, but I cannot anymore think myself without creating art.
My aesthetic developed a lot since, which is part of what I love the most of being an artist – it’s a continuous journey. There’s always room for growth: alone in the studio, meeting other artists and exchanging experiences with them, collaborating with designers and art advisors on projects for their clients, meeting collectors who sometimes become friends.
I love both the personal and intimate dimension and the expanded-social one.
I also accept the risk that is deeply intertwined first in creating art and then in showing it out there: I believe I can manage that fear because I know I’m always ‘me’, whether people love my paintings or criticize them. This strong sense of identity wasn’t part of me in my previous jobs, and I’m so grateful for that.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

My first ‘jump out there’ has been in 2019, when I had the chance to exhibit my works during 3 consecutive editions of The Other Art Fair in London – UK. That year I felt I could really transform my project in a full time profession – giving it some more years of hard efforts and occasions. Then the pandemic.
Those were a very scary 2-years of doubts, virtually no sales, even finding supplies was difficult at times. However that didn’t stop me from painting and I kept working part time to support my project (feeling very foolish so many days…).

This time at home, where I rearranged a room into my studio, gave me the chance to experiment and, looking back now at that time, I can see how much my art became more and more what it is now.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Apart from being an extremely rewarding experience per se (I love meeting people in general) knowing art lovers and collectors during direct art fairs has been such a precious opportunity for me. Art becomes a means to dialogue at a very emotional level: it’s about knowing their likes and dislikes, but even more it’s about what inspires them or elevate their day, gives them comfort or a smile. What they get from the painting is often different from what I felt while making it – and this is so wonderful!

Also, taking care of the logistic side of the business (from mounds of papers for shipping/customs – I live in Italy) to setting up the booth – drill at hand, to talking with fair visitors and artists, all this has something magical to me.
The sales part is both fun and scary, it fills me with energy and with anxiety: a true roller coaster that teaches me so much of how to relate with people at this level which is somehow far from me. I feel I hold my profession in hands and I can keep improving and giving a better experience to others as well as streamlining processes and skills on my end.

The direct art fairs I participated in in the UK and US gave also additional credibility to my work and helped me liaising and collaborating with many art professionals too, such as art curators, advisors and designers.
This is the team-work side of painting that I also enjoy very much. I don’t really feel that following the design brief as a limitation. Actually I enjoy the challenge to merge my style with the specific requests of a project and I often learned a lot from these experiences, that end up influencing my successive works.

During art fairs I also made so many friends among artists: apart from their talent and the stimuli of being exposed to so many different aesthetic views, the majority of them are very open minded persons, very generous. At the end of an art fair I come home with a luggage full of courage, and that is coming from sharing such a roller-coaster experience with fellow artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.francescaborgo.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francescaborgo.art/