Marie-José d’Aprile is a contemporary visual artist. Her medium of expression and art forms include ceramics, sculptures, installation work and photographs.

In 2019 she took a leap of faith when moving to Italy with her husband. What had been an intimate artistic work had by then become an urge to express herself as an artist. Since then, she explored her own being artist, shedding away layers of identity, searching for her own language, with the mere intent to spark emotions with her artwork.

“When working with the clay I search for ways of expressing the materiality of nature, its texture, be it vegetal, mineral or organic. The texture is part as much a part of the piece as its shape, contours. I seek to create an impulse for the viewer to touch, grab and hold the pieces discovering the materiality of the clay.”

I created this piece for the exhibtion at Villa Arbusto, Ischia. Artists were asked to draw their inspiration from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess and a renewed Female Archetype.

Fertility draws its inspiration from the Coco Fesses, which are unique to the Seychelles. They are a symbol of abundance, femininity, and naturally fertility. The texture made with oxydes creates a paradox: The sensuality of generous feminine forms attracts your attention, but the piece’s rough texture, looking made of stone or concrete, challenges one’s impressions, giving the viewer the impulse to touch, feel and hold the piece to see what it is made of.