I am not TheONE.You are TheONE
My name is LOR3nzo, I am a NYC based Italian Artist.
TheONE is a body of work where I celebrate the Individuality of each human, reminding each and one of us that our Individuality is important, has value, we have power, and each one of us can make a difference in our own Life, in the Life of others, and – therefore – in making the world a better place.
Life itself is the utmost expression of Art.
TheONE is a project that I started a few years ago, I was traveling and I had some Art supplies with me to just play here and there. Those days I was experimenting with “Portable Art”, I wanted to make Art pieces that people could just carry with them and take out on demand whenever the need to be soothed by Art would arise.
I was experimenting with iconic shapes, so I was making painting the size/shape of post-it notes and index cards and I was receiving lukewarm feedback.
Then one day I was thinking about the portability and decided to make painting the size/shape of a credit card. I liked them but they were really too little to actually carry on a visual message; so I make a few paintings the size of the US Dolla bill, this way it would be very portable since it would be easily stored in someone’s wallet.
People LOVED the shape, not so much my paintings, LOL; which at the time were my own writings on abstract background.
Then one day, on a whim, I executed 6 “TheONE”
and I showed them to my Friends who absolutely fell in love with them, so I made some more and I just gave them away in lieu of a business card.
Then one day I was in Paris (France) having an aperitif and decided to try something: barter Art for my drinks, and low and behold I received 2 drinks for my TheONE.
That’s when I knew I was onto something. From there on I would barter TheONE all over the world with people from all walks for life in exchange for:
- drinks
- food
- art supplies
- grocery
- good conversation
- friendship
The exchange per is The Art, immortalized by a photo and post on Social Media, the actual piece TheONE is the souvenir of the exchange, the interaction of two humans.
With time I also developed paintings of TheONE, small, medium and very large scale that culminated in the E Pluribus Unum exhibit at the Strand Theater Gallery in Boston (MA):