My name is Stefano, also known as Ronch, and I’m an Italian painter based in East London. My style of work—most people call it surrealism, and I agree, but I prefer to call it Magical Realism. On Magical Realism To me, Magical Realism sounds better. It’s like going somewhere else while keeping that familiar feeling of figures and shapes. It’s like when you play a video game; you just go somewhere else into another world where fish can fly or things have several dimensions. I like that about the genre, but there is no magic without realism. Unconscious Painting I completely trust my unconscious and my subconscious. For me, it’s just about "going weird." The painting doesn’t need to make sense straight away; maybe it will make sense later. There is a famous sentence that describes it as "beautiful like the meeting between an umbrella and a sewing machine on top of a medical table." Those things make no sense nearby, but all together they are amazing. Everyone can take whatever they want from that, like a song in a foreign language where you don't know the words, but you make your own movie in your head. Research and Development Even if my paintings have looked similar for ten years, to me they are completely different because my style is a constant research. It’s like a PhD with no end. I’m just discovering. Once I do something good, I don't stop there and do it over and over to sell it—I move on. I moved from pen to pencil, then to acrylic, and now I’m working with oil. Painting as an Adventure Most of my paintings are an adventure because I don’t know what I’m doing when I start. I begin with a random shape and then go inside to try and make sense of that abstract form. It depends on what I saw during the week—maybe foxes fighting outside my window or a seagull stealing from a kid. I am growing up with my experiences, and I think it is important to never stop. Looking Back I actually don't like to look back. A painting I did five years ago looks like garbage to me now, and I think that is a very good thing. If I looked back and thought it was still good, that would mean I’ve stopped my research. That is what’s scary to me. Painting Without Reference The most fun is when I paint without reference and go completely random. In that case, the painting tells a story, but I have no idea what it is yet. I’m not like a filmmaker who knows how it starts and ends; I just know how I start and then I discover things. The best metaphor is being an explorer with a torch in a cave you've never been inside. You see a horse head or a snake, and that develops the story. Addicted to Art I am addicted to this; I cannot picture my life without it. I wake up and I paint. My studio is always in my house because I love to be inside my work. Before I go to bed, I check it and think about what I’ll do tomorrow. Before I even get a coffee in the morning, I check it again. I always have a painting or drawing to finish. At 38, I still have that need to finish the next thing, and that’s super cool. Hope for the Work When people see my work, I hope they like it aesthetically first—it’s important to me to do things that are nice. Then, I want them to be "sucked in." I use a lens to go into very high detail and hide things in small spaces. I want people to travel inside the work. They see a nice painting, they go closer and realize it’s weird or crazy, and then they go back and see that it is still nice. That is the full circle for me.