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Zeno Pillan

A3 paper

Handpaint A3 paper. (297x420mm)

On sale.

17€ each (delivery ITA included, for other locations extra delivery cost may apply)

Tommy can you read me?

This is a color readability chart.

Petaloso

Norwegian bouquet

When I saw those flowers in the Klosterkroa café on the Hovedøya island I finally understood why Scandinavian floral prints are that much different from the Mediterranean ones.

Don’t be a downline

Sometimes we need to hear how someone falls into scams to protect ourselves in the future.

Lombard field

This year I finally understood why Nordic flower illustrations are so different from Italian and French ones. I was eating a sandwich at the Klosterkroa café on the Hovedøya island when I noted the flowers on the table. There was a flower so deeply different from any other flower I had ever seen that I realized that I never understood Scandinavian flower illustrations because I have never seen Scandinavian flowers before. Those in the picture are the flower I have experienced as normal in the place I have grown up.

Orange slices.

Divers

3 meters high. To soften the impact of water, some divers wear a wet suit top. She changed her mind about that dive but was too late to stop.

Gemini season

This year Gemini’s birthday season was utterly hot.

Parc national des Calanques

They suggest bringing with you 2 liters of water. My niece’s drawings inspired the style.

MTV

Life does not give you lemon. Lemon trees do.

So if you want to eat or squeeze them, you should plant the seeds to pay them off.

Domino

I tronchi svizzeri

The snow in Switzerland on April the 1st.

Ouch!

I saw a tweet with a medieval miniature representing a foot over a snake. The tweet said: Ouch! I changed the snake with a rose to avoid someone can think that the foot is the hero because somehow the snake is guilty. Both of them will cry from the pain.

Palma

In Mallorca, I have seen palms as I have never seen before. It was in the September of 2021, outside of the City, going north from Palma to Esporles. Usually, they cut the dead leaves from the palm’s trunk, or the strong wind from the sea rips them away. Here dead leafs stayed on palms so, under a bright green tuft of new leaves, dangle a big grey bush that tins out to show the trunk only near the ground. Earth was of a brick color. The mountains were luxuriant green. The asphalt of the streets was the darkest, almost black, I’ve ever seen.

Alea

Progress pride flag

Co2

Calculating the ambient impact of missiles should consider not only the production and the explosion itself but also the demolition of the damaged building and the construction of a new one if needed. How many grams of CO2 have I emitted today? The worst damage is always done by those who do not care.

The boat and the castle.

Peace

Will the kind Angel of peace statue in Donetsk survive?

Italian porn.

Some Italians are so obsessed with food that they can spend time talking about how much bread and oil are perfect together.

ND

I’m very frustrated with the war in Ukraine. When I decided to draw that, I first searched on Wikipedia the history of the peace sign. That sign is composed of the letters N and D of the semaphore flag system. N and D are for Nuclear Disarmament. Here a human being indicates the N letter and stands peacefully together with another one in the letter D position.

I’m sad.

Today I feel powerless. 27/02/2022, Milan.

Emergency Exit 2

26/02/2022 Today I feel like that. Another war has started and I’m trapped home for contracting covid. Locking emergency exit doors was something normal when I was a teenager. It’s also one of the main reasons they closed most discos and clubs in the 2000s. Clubs owners thought that otherwise, people would enter using emergency exit doors without paying admission tickets. It’s useless inventing panic bars to save lives and then closing them with a padlock. More than stupid, it’s vicious.

Kickflip

Vin brûlé

My grandfather used to light mulled wine with a candle. Even if some drop of wax will pour in the wine, you’ll filter it like cinnamon and cloves.

Dressage

I’ve seen the 2020’s Olympic games mostly from my tablet. I was in a parking lot, in front of the vaccination’s hub, waiting for my girlfriend to take her second Covid vaccine shot when I decided to try to look at the horses’ competition. There was only the dressage competition online. I found dressage so boring that soon I decided to watch diving competitions instead. From the dressage competition, I kept that frame in my mind. In the stable, a horse licked an ostler’s head.

Robots 2

A follow-up to the “robots” in the magazine’s cover style.

Plia & Tonet

Design history must know chairs.

Wave

I’m listening to “The swarm” by Frank Schatzing recently.

I granchi in tasca.

Avere i granchi in tasca. The literal translation is: to have crabs in the pocket. It is an Italian expression that means “To be stingy”. Even if I heard it for the first time just a few weeks ago, it has immediately become my favorite one. All the other Italian expressions for stinginess are racists or ableists. This one instead is cute and fun to me. Have you spotted the moon-shaped skin mole? Both astrology and tarots relate moon and cancer.

You make me cringe

On the 7th December 2021, I was driving on the highway toward Turin. That’s a frame from the panorama. I noticed that the upper sky had the same color as the shadows on the mountains. There were no clouds in the sky. I drew it on my sketchbook the following day. Outside it was snowing. The trees became a sentence because the picture of the most stunning landscapes looks boring to me without extra detail.

Fontana

This fountain is a tribute to the 90’s graphic that was in trend when I was a kid.

30/01/22

My girlfriend and I bought those candlesticks at the flea market on the “Navigli” in Milan. They organize this flea market every last Sunday of the month.

Emergency Exit

That’s something I’m glad to know, but I hope I will never get to need to do. I’ve been trying for years to fit the length of the sheet with text. I discovered yesterday that I like it most when you can see it does not fit properly.

Muggle

I found a pleasantly read Harry Potter’s Audiobook on Spotify.

Kiss me

On a page in my sketchbook, I found an unsettling cat with human lips. I can’t remember how it arrived there. Today, looking at the moon in daylight, I realized that the lightened half should be facing the sun.

Snack

Bull’s totem.

There was a detail over a door riverfront in Basel that inspired me.

Ghost train

I never liked He-Man. One of the main reasons was that I thought “Skeletor” was a poorly designed character. I recently saw the docuseries “The toys that made us” where they explain the design of He-Man and who is Skeletor. Now I understand that Skeletor isn’t sloppy but horrifying. The choice of giving him a human body, skull face, and a hood isn’t random. He is an existing person. He is the scary man who sells the tickets for the ghost train. I met him just a few years ago, at the “Prater” in Vienna with my girlfriend. We were buying our ticket when the seller surprised us. He left us at the box office and wore a skeleton-masked hood. Then he jumped at the exit of the dark rail tunnel Just in time to scare two girls still sitting in the wagon. Ghost trains usually are more kitsch than frightening. That one wasn’t an exception at all. Anyway, at the end of the rail, we both gasped. We were already in sight of sunlight, even if I was still trying to avoid the last fake spider web when the tickets seller whit the hood and skull face appeared. He managed to frighten us. Even if we knew he would have done that and we should have expected it. P.s. still not liking he-man nor Skeletor, but loved the story behind the design of them.

;

The sight empowering hi-tech tool

Pistacios

I’ve never seen raw pistachio. I don’t even know if pistachios grow from a plant, a tree, or a bush.

Candelabro votivo

As a kid, I loved to light candles. My mother loves art and architecture. That’s the reason why she used to bring me to churches even if she wasn’t going to teach me any religion. She taught me that I could light a candle in those candlesticks any time I liked by leaving an offer for maintenance of the place. Nowadays I think that they aren’t using real candles anymore but led ones. So they prevent the burning of candles from darkening the walls and paintings.

Backpack sunflowers

As seen on Østergade street in Copenhagen.

May I have two coffee tables?

This is another artwork inspired by the art exhibition “Alcova”. Four tables with different styles were cut horizontally and presented mixed up.

Peak

One of the peaks seen in Switzerland on the road back to Italy.

Robots

My art teacher at high school was not only passionate about art’s history but also curious about the equivalent symbolism in modern society. One of his dilemmas was if the car is the evolution of medieval armor or if it is a mechanic surrogate of the horse. The answer he finally found was that car is the modern equivalent of both: armor and horse. Even if it is not a life-changing thought at all, it changed how the “Mecha” movie looks to me. Now I don’t see epic fights, I see only stressed drivers shouting at the other people stuck in the traffic.

Nutcracker

Don’t judge the tool. Taste the nuts.

Alcova

“Alcova” was the name of an exhibition I’ve visited during Design week 2021 in Milan. That exhibition took place in a disused area. One of the buildings was previously a nun’s residence. Here, one of the rooms was filled with those unknown metal symbols. I haven’t understood if they were part of the art installation or part of the original furniture of the room.

European flag

Il broccolo dell’orto è il condominio dei bruchi.

Enoteca

Cashmere Balaclava

It’s cold outside, I gotta go home.

Grandparents advice

Grandparent: <Bring yourself a sweater, here the weather isn’t so warm.>

Judo

Judo's Olympic games. As seen on TV.

Chili peppers

Squirrel

Family portrait

Family portrait. Mother and her two grown-up sons with also their robot-workers. The pool cleaner is stuck upside down. P.s. Don’t leave your slippers or any tiny object on the grass. Otherwise, the lawnmower robot will bite and ruin them with its blades.

The white bull and the white bird

Wonderful white animals I’ve seen in Tuscany. There’s a sad detail. The number 19 engraved on the leg of that bull is something usual for farm animals. So it is presumable that now that I’m writing about it, it has already been killed and eaten.

Self-portrait in the pool

Season. Melon.

The wall

Sunbathing at the “Stabilimento Balneare Bagno Delle Donne”, we admired a wonderful sea and cliffs landscape. Over the cliff, stands out the “Rocca Aldobrandesca di Talamone”. It’s an ancient castle with no window at all. Later we went to take a walk around the castle and see the panorama. Standing under these imposing fortress’ walls made me feel awed and overwhelmed. Those kinds of walls look to me so primitive, useless, and also wrong. It’s depressing knowing that there are walls like that are still working and that they aren’t a ruin of an ancient past.

Friendship

It’s the month of pride. This artwork may fit in even if it came from a slightly different inspiration. Once I heard an African nun explaining the symbolism behind traditional decorative fabric prints. The print that inspired me the most is the one about agriculture. It’s a composition of wheat and hands. Hands’ palms are with several holes that are the symbol of hard work. That stimulated me to think about figurative symbolism as a decorative pattern. Weaved fingers become to me the symbol of deep friendship. Colors’ inspiration came later from European flags. The idea was born while I was watching Eurovision because I appreciate shows aimed at bound countries and creating an international shared culture. So that artwork speaks about friendship and community. We should all aim to be the best and most inclusive community ever. We always should.

Dazzled

Remembering Turin saw from Superga.

Toret

Turin’s water fountain on a garnet-red background.

Foam_Bubble

My wonderful girlfriend bought this bubble candle here.

Paper Crane

I’m good with paper boats, but I never tried to fold a paper crane. I have a paper crane at home, is a present by a former colleague.

Peachy

Just the peach emoji.

La Satira

Statyress in a glade standing with a trumpet. It actually can be around 10 am or at 4 pm, with the moon in daylight. I love when the pale moon and bright sun both shine in the skies.

Radishes and red cabbage

Fresh, tasty and crunchy salad.

Skeleton

Mermen

Which is your favorite merman?

Il gregge

Are those sheep with human faces or humans with sheep’s body?

Mirror play 02

Forum.

Aka “Twitter”, “WhatsApp group” or “Coral”. I just wanted to draw a monster. I didn’t want it to be scary or dangerous, just odd, with lots of eyes and mouths. He claimed by itself also noses and ears. When it was done it recalled in my imagination every kind of digital chat I’ve ever met.

Commuter

If you have ever been on Milano’s underground metropolitan train you can recognize the handler. I’ve been a commuter for sport, study, and work for several years of my life. Most of the time I’ve done it on standard time when the public transport is full of unremarkable people and the only nice thing you can do is reading (here a postcard of that situation). But if you move during an unusual time you can see the more strange and the most stylish people in the city. Those people are interesting but a bit odd and looks somehow stylish and kitsch at the same time. They are dressed up but also a bit sweaty or dirty for the time spent roaming the city.

Ex voto Sofia glasses.

Don’t you think sometimes you should thank the objects that make your life better like you thank gods? Those are the glasses.

Screws and washers

During this winter staycation, my partner and I decided to change our kitchen wall units. It hasn’t been easy. Those screws and washers were the expansion bolts that hooked up the former wall units. They look like flowers to me.

Yama

Love letter to Ikea

La neve non si posa e l’erba non cresce sotto gli svincoli autostradali.

No snow lies and no grass grows below highway interchanges.

Untitled geometry 01

XVIII – La Lune

Eyes

I’m a bit obsessed with drowning eyes inside the lips. Here there is another one I made in 2008.

Vittoria

She is vittoria.

Avocado del diavolo

The devil’s avocado. Avocado sounds really similar to advocate “Avvocato” in Italian. I know, translating puns sucks.

Bird-day

Birds on the carrefour sign. I love the unfinished look for this drawing, but I think I will eventually color cars, ground, and sky too.

Made in the USA.

Alphabet

So fresh, so ’90s. This pattern reminds me of my childhood. Click here to discover how.

Living room

Oh no

In this outfit: Acne silver chocker, Djerf Avenue Forever pants and Grace lee resin and diamond ring. The TikTok trend t-shirt is inspired by Alexa Chung hard-core t-shirt.

Tigros

I have barely seen new places recently. I saw this hidden corner near a well-known road. I’ve never been to any of those supermarkets, but I saw the billboard over the building at the corner, and it was stunning.

Tre spritzetti

On Wednesday we wear pink

The amazing waterpark she once told me about

I’ve never been here. I discovered after that this draw was done that the shark shouldn’t have been a big one but lots of little sharks.

Briscola

Venus

8th December to-do list.

Blue

Oh yeah, this is the snake from the Nokia 9310. Can you feel the struggle? Will the snake eat another point? I’ll be honest, I sucked at that game.

It actually was the 1st

I made the first sketch for this artwork on December the 1st. I bought the watch in October so it was the first time I had to change the day on it. I discovered that only when I was drowning the number 31 in the day spot. Ok, it is not an amazing story, but it is such a nice coincidence to me that I needed to share with you.

Matching chairs

It belongs in a museum!

Here I discovered there actually is a pair of those shoes in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection since 1985.

Aperitivo per due

Standing Bear

Once I saw a movie about an American native losing himself in alcohol. I can’t remember the title, the only thing I can remember was that even if it was a sad story it had a hopeful ending. His native name meaning was ”standing bear”. The standing bear is standing to protect his babies. The standing bear isn’t hiding or running away. Hopefully will just be standing till the end of the thread. The standing bear is here to protect you. It will be here next to you till you’ll need it.

Cancer tee

Mirror play 01

Mirror play. Showing just a little and showing everything at same time.

Dappled boots

Black chino trousers and dappled boots on asphalt. Nothing more. Loud enough.

Autumn

Vintage purple cotton twill five pockets trousers, black belt and Merino’s striped mock neck jumper.

Dancing legs

Welcome to our living room. You can see our wooden reading chair, our tirsty plant and a carpet. Ah yeah there’s also a mirror reflecting my uncoordinated legs and a gold painted polystyrene head.

Zebra

I have a little plastic zebra toy on my bedside table.

Felino arancione su fondo blu.

From the “cose belle da appendere” series. It look like an orange feline on a blue background. Actually it properly is, except for the background that’s more green-blue than just blue.
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