Biography

I was born in 1983 in Cinigiano (Grosseto), a small town in the Maremma region of Tuscany, and from an early age I grew up with a passion for drawing and art.

I am the son of a jeweler mother and a farmer father, two professions that coexist with the beauty of this world. I discovered painting at the age of 9 on a summer afternoon, while rummaging through my father's art books and doilies and bobbin lace (an old Sicilian tailoring technique). Like a child seeing the light for the first time, I began to see something.

Leafing through it, I came across one of my most beautiful paintings, Giovanni Fattori's "Libecciata," and as I tried to reproduce it with my fingers on canvas, I couldn't feel the passage of time. In that moment, I realized I would never be able to stop painting.

During my adolescence, I was introduced to the world of tattoos through some older friends, and I was absolutely fascinated. So I began to delve into this world as a way to create a career through art, and completely self-taught, I began experimenting. Then I took a regional course, and from there, my first attempts, first on my own skin and then on that of friends.

In 2006, after years of hard work and sacrifice to save money, I decided to pursue this passion and left for Thailand, where I attended an international school of traditional tattooing, directed by master Khantima Aranjolovic.

After several apprenticeships and obtaining my professional license, Matrix Draws Tattoo & Art was founded in GROSSETO in 2008.

My journey is neither special nor unique; it's a life of sacrifices, renunciations, disappointments, and departures for new experiences.

I'm deeply passionate about art and have filled my lack of education with my curiosity thanks to the internet, somehow creating my own parallel path.

I'm a painter/tattoo artist, and this has allowed me to make a living from art. Specifically, it has given me the opportunity to improve my techniques and knowledge, creating my own "workshop."

Returning to the workshop to savor art as it once was, with sweat, technique, and satisfaction, especially from the smallest client who helps you move forward.

I repeat, no specific training; I would have liked to have worked alongside a master or had a regular art school education, to be on the same level as so many others.

I hope this helps me gain experience as a self-taught artist.

I've always struggled to understand how it was done; I've always tried and tried until I've achieved a sort of understanding of the techniques. I've always drawn since I was a child, stealing everything I could with my eyes.

My work as a tattoo artist has allowed me to meet and attend painting workshops and courses all over the world.

I dare say that the tattoo boom has brought a lot of art to today's society at a time when our artistic heritage is being destroyed on a daily basis.

I have painted with many artists.

They are artists I met through attending their workshops and seminars.

Michael Hussar, David Kassan, Casey Bugh, Markus Lenhard, Valentina Riabova, Guy Atchinson, Shawn Barber, Chris Digwell, Jeff Gougue, Henrik Uldalen, Boris, Shige, Nikko Hurtado, Boris Vallejo & Judi Bell, Nick Baxter, and many other highly regarded artists.

My favorite painters are: Giovanni Fattori, Anselm Keifer, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Bouguereau, Bacon, Dalí…. I'll never finish the list.

What probably sets me apart is the strength and tenacity that art has given me; it saved my life by pulling me out of the wrong path. Waking up at night to paint after 12 hours of labor made me feel good.

In short, I'd say this: I'm Gianluca Fascetto. For me, art is the physical extension of our mind, heart, and soul.

We carry an immense baggage of memories... everything that distinguishes us in our lives we reproduce in the form of art. Our works are the product of the emotions, colors, images, sounds, and smells that have developed and shaped us in the subconscious.

I can paint because it's the only thing I know how to do, to convey through my works the message of returning to a single consciousness.

The end of duality... to become one.

I am a painter, an artist who reproduces what has left its mark on me, a powerful exchange of energy and information that I imprint within every brushstroke.

ALL INFORMATION COMES FROM MY DNA.

IN EVERY DNA THERE ARE MILLIONS OF YEARS OF EVOLUTION...a galaxy of information...millions of people.

Who reproduces all this? Maybe I don't know... my art, for me, is a testimony for the people of tomorrow.

So...

"I'll pass on the information!"

Thank you for your attention.

Gianluca