CURIOSITY AND PASSION FOR ART

My scientific activities have never been my sole focus of interest. Looking back, my inspiration for artistic activities started quite early in my life. The walls in our home were full of oil paintings and watercolor pictures, mostly by my father, but some were from other artists, which my father had obtained in exchange for his own work. I do not know if it was the effect of such an environment or if I had inherited the proper genes (epigenetics), but already in elementary school my teachers noticed that I was very gifted in making fanciful drawings of animals and people. My father not only introduced me to different techniques for painting and drawing, but also explained to me how to plan compositions. I was quite motivated to try different techniques and to improve my performance. Moreover, while drawing or painting I could retreat into a subconscious world of fertile imagination, or “flow,” using the prevailing term of psychology…