Transforming a passion into a profession is putting creativity at the service of professional competence. Laura De Alexandris has an innate love for graphics and she has transformed it into her job. It is necessary to have courage, to realize a dream and not compromise. She lives and works in the heart of the industrious Brianza as an graphic illustrator and when she is not looking for creative ecstasy on the electronic “palette”, she cultivates the passion for diving. Her watch? With crown at 4.

  • 1. What happens during your creative process?
    My “creative trance” doesn’t start immediately, it doesn’t explode “on command” but goes through a phase of “acceleration”. Finding the right inspiration to achieve a goal is the most time-consuming part of my job. I have to collect as much material as possible to be able to blend the elements into the right combination. You need to be able to listen to yourself, your customers and understand the identity of the work they do. I usually ask a lot of questions but they are essential to allow creativity to have a “good pantry” to draw from. Creativity is a force that you don’t control: it envelops you in an extraordinary embrace that takes you where it wishes.

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  • 2. From a detail to a shape or vice versa? Or both?
    I am lucky to experience both. Sometimes a title that I invent suggests what the details will be like and other times are details that allows me to give a title.
    It is like a mountain path: at the beginning it is difficult, you have to overcome the difference in altitude and feel the fatigue. When you feel that the initial criticality has been overcome, you work and would work indefinitely. I remember my degree thesis as one of the most ambitious and strenuous jobs I have ever done. I realized while I was working that my project was not representing me as an artist. I took courage and I did it all over again in less than half the time, working every day and even many nights. Working no longer weighed on me, work flowed as if it was a river, because I was emotionally involved and I had found a higher goal to achieve.

  • 3. Can you identify “the beginning of everything?
    Everything comes from intuition, thoughts and emotions that precede it. I don’t usually get it immediately. I give myself time to observe and listen to what I live, looking for stimulating pictures and experiences. Then, when I melt the elements that inspired me and the emotional rapture is inevitable I let it take possession of me. The illustration borns where rationality ends.1
  • 4. And when does the ecstasy begin?
    Time and the outside world lose their meaning. Space-time is reduced in the relationship between me and the artwork. I remember how a pencil self-portrait made me feel estranged from the world, as if I had slipped into another dimension of being. I believe that this type of involvement is due to the intensity of the emotions you feel while you act. It was the first time I drew by “baring” the emotions on my face. I lived this experience as a liberation.

L’OMW G-Series with crown at 9. Read  here.

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  • 5. So the work does not follow a predetermined pattern from the start …
    The artwork is created by creating”, meant Picasso. Planning is important but action is the fundamental key. The action affirms the work and the artist. During the work, concentration and emotional involvement increase, allowing you to see what you didn’t see before. There are cases in which I reach a different result from the initial sketch but it is better that way cause I always reach a better result than the starting point.

  • 6. What do you try to avoid in your creative process?
    The best artworks were born when I decided to abandon precision and I let myself go. Unfortunately or fortunately, accuracy was taught me. It is functional for life but it can stifle creativity, so I always try not to rage on the artworks. I remember an illustration from 5 years ago … I represented a Mother Nature 2.0. perfectly balancing “creative trance” and precision. The latter was used only to accompany and was not there to hold the reins of the experience. In a short time I created an illustration that is still very popular for its style, softness of shapes and color contrast.

The Seiko 5 Sports in it’s environment

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  • 7. In those moments where did your gaze go?
    I am an observer. I love scuba diving and under water the gaze is unleashed. The underwater universe is extraordinary for the range of colors, the hues of the fish that become chrome. It is then that the desire to reproduce that world arises, to make it mine, a product of my creativity that the eye of an observer can grasp and process. It’s like sunset: you can’t have it but you can represent it. My creative ecstasy becomes combining shapes and colors to create something that brings you closer to those sensations.
  • 8. The underwater world is the place on earth Where you can admire perfection..
    No, actually. So is a subway. People, colors and details, filtered through a certain sensitivity, take you into a heterogeneous universe never to take for granted.

  • 9. What is the color of pure beauty?
    From my early age, black has had a very strong influence. Technically it is equivalent to the absence of color but for me it is a color in all respects, magical, beauty inspiring, deep and unconventional.
  • 10. What did it teach you?
    Its “depth”, the abysmal and spatial one, taught me to go further and push myself beyond conventions. Black usually scares but It creates a lot of curiosity in me.

The Bomberg style with crown at 2

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  • 11. Let’s talk about watches: which famous model would you redesign with the crown NOT at 3?
    I love the Panerai Submersible. The most extreme version for an enthusiast is the PAM0569, precisely in terms of the architecture of the watch, it is the “Left-handed” with a crown at 9. But if I could redesign it, I would move the crown to 4.

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  • 12. Is there, then, a Corona at 4 that you particularly like?
    I am a Seiko 5 Sports fan. I love Seiko sportiness and the 5 Sports is the quintessential sports watch with a crown at 4. My favorite version is the Seiko 5 Sports 140° Anniversario Limited Edition. Aesthetically perfect! I am fascinated by how the white of the dial harmonizes with the blue color of the bezel. It is these “nautical” colors that bring my imagination back to the places I love the most. Another attraction is the luminescence, which is essential for those who dive. You can’t risk staying without light even for those who love the abyss like me..

L’U-Boat Chimera 60 mm con enorme cassa in bronzo e corona al 9.

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  • 13. The crown at 4 changes the nature of a watch …
    The crown at 4 has a special charm. As a woman, I appreciate the elegance of a watch, but as a diving lover, a watch wins me over as a “tool”. A “crown at 4” is part of my equipment. With the wrist computer I manage all the phases but the watch is essential to keep the “time” variable under control. A “crown at 4” is the best tool for my wrist.
  • 14. With the pink dial?
    It’s not relevant. Male forms are charming and powerful. After all, under water there is no distinction between men and women. I manage my tank, I am riderless with my Corona at 4. Indeed: not at 3!

To contact Laura Francesca De Alexandris send a mail to: alexandris.art@gmail.com

Gavox Lexacy with crown at 4 & power reserve. Read about it  here.

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