“Monica Merlitti has been enriching the lives of many people all over the world with her art. Her paintings are full of joy, mystery, magic, and depth. Her work is the fruit of a very full and extraordinary life spent traveling the world. Her spirit is bold, her vision broad. She is a very gifted and natural painter…using whatever means necessary to execute a painting. Not concerned with conventions or inhibited by rules or fear she will often paint straight from the tubes, use her nails, her bare hands and anything else she can find to aid her instinctive expression. Bursting with passion, emotion, a great strength and natural dynamic rhythm, her work enchants and delights the soul. There are many painters, but few true artists. Monica Merlitti is a true artist in every sense of the word.”
— Paolo Chelini
Professor of Art, Florence, Italy
Monica Merlitti is of Italian origin and spent her youth between California and Italy. She has studied at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, Julian Ashton Private Art Academy in Sydney on a full scholarship, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. She speaks fluent Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
“My art is always evolving and changing. As I work I find that the painting dictates itself to me, and my main job is to get out of the way. I like the mysterious interaction with my subconscious and emotions. I think it is important for an artist to follow this inner instinct and to let the creative process unfold naturally. I find that if I am in a deep state of surrender, similar to meditation that I begin to feel something take over…”
Her background includes photography, sculpture, writing, poetry, dance, and humanitarian work. She has been to over 70 countries and has lived and worked in Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, London, Israel, Florence, New York, San Francisco, Big Sur, Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto.
Monica is also a part-time yoga instructor and nutritional consultant. She is currently living between the Bay Area and Buenos Aires where she pursues her passion for Argentine Tango, while continuing to evolve as an artist.
“There is a struggle to create something without that grace and it becomes an unpredictable and exciting journey between one’s own ideas and creative inspirations and this inexplicable force that shows up to contribute, change and rearrange things from time to time.”
Her vision is to someday open an artist collective and residency program for teenagers and young adults who want to explore and nurture their creativity in a group of kindred spirits. In this space, painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians and writers would join together to create an original body of work to then share with the public. The interaction and exchange of creativity in a group setting would be used as a catalyst for expressing both the inner and outer world of the artist and as a way to communicate universal desires, aspirations and hopes bridging gaps between cultures, creeds and ideologies.
“Beauty is not always pretty. Beauty does not always feel good. Beauty is anything that is real and pure; it is found in vulnerability, in courage, in passion, in tears, in pain, in being fully alive and human. It is being strong at the same time that you are fragile. Beauty is not found so much in perfection as it is in the wild unguarded, spontaneous expressions of our soul.”