Ilenia Madaro.
"I am an Italian artist born in Milan and currently living in Malta. I grew up in a sunny small village situated on Salento's Peninsula , in Southern Italy, at the so-called " heel of Italy's boot”.

Drawing and art in general has always been part of who I am and part of how I have expressed myself ever since I was a child. I still remember the long days spent in my bedroom supposedly studying, whilst instead I would be filling my diary pages with funny drawings, sketches from fantasy stories or pictures depicting weird characters. At that time it was just something I loved to do and that made me happy and complete. After that apparently slow river of time, composed of long summer days spent at the beach, jumping over the waves, or running through the fields surrounded by dry, stone walls, I ended up one day, hugging my pillow for comfort, heading North of Italy.

I rooted myself in Milan, where I spent almost twenty years of my life immersed in University studies, enjoying theatre & drama in my spare time, as well as occupying myself with plenty of drawings. Once graduated in Advertising Media and Communication at IULM University of Milan, I worked for almost 10 years as Talent’s Scout for a Film/Advertising Production company. With the birth of my first and then second child, in 2011, I decided to work independently. I carried on with my job as freelance, and in 2016, I moved with my family to the Southern Mediterranean island of Malta, a small 'rock' in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

My life was running smoothly, when tough times knocked forcefully on my door, throwing me out and forcing me to quit my job for a while, as my health was at stake. And it was in the worst period of my life that I discovered in the art of painting not only a mate but also renewed hope , a therapy to heal, a path to help me get through these difficult times and look into myself to find my inner being. So I decided to focus on art, because as I like to say “if you are so lucky to find the essential ingredient of your life you have to keep ti with you and never let it go ”. I can say that I have been lucky that way".