Ala & Alma

Riding the wings of art with Ala & Alma.

Ala & Alma are two names that bring a sense of respect within them. Sounding so uniquely beautiful together, they attune with nature and the Brazilian heritage of our BEA mum couple – Ala being the wing that uplifts, and Alma the soul within.  

Ala is a Roman born visual artist and founder of ORME: her own experimental screen printing studio. She opened Orme’s doors to the world only 3 years ago (2021), and ever since she has been working to offer a creative space for visual artists to connect, expand their visions, and develop their artwork. She is creating in Rome, an environment that resembles what she experienced while living in New York and London – a collaborative art studio, a safe space for fellow artists to experience their own artistic journey ‘when in Rome’.

You are a visual artist, what are you up to right now?

I just had a show at the Museum of the Botanical Garden in Rome with my dear friend Folly (aka Nathalie Santini). We both work with printmaking, and both our research pivots around coexistence with nature. At ORME, I’m helping artist Mia Sanchez with the production of her own work for the final show at the Swiss Institute. I love having these two parallel realities, ORME and my own practice. 

Were you always intrigued by the world of printmaking or was it something you picked up along the way?

I studied Photography at uni, my relation to images has always been linked with my fascination for printing. The act of capturing the image is comparable to the act of speaking, as both are characterised by immediacy, and their confrontational nature. The act of printing is an act of imprinting, as writing is. It comes later and therefore it relates to the past. Like memorising a passage of a book by engraving it with the gesture of writing, or the remembrance of an image through the process of making its duplicate.

My primary attraction to printmaking comes from all of that. I also love etching, intaglio or aquatint, but silkscreen is faster, more tolerant to errors, and easier to work on a bigger scale. 

In your pieces you deconstruct objects and images – what is the artistic journey for your art print? 

I have no interest in following a specific path. It’s more a feeling than anything else. The precariousness, or fear of the anticipated loss, the silent witness, ghosts. This is probably because I grew up in a city like Rome, an open-air archeology site, incapable of separating itself from the past – grandiose and imposing, in contrast with her present, which is inert and decadent. Since antiquity, ruins in conversation with nature are able to depict an important metaphor. There is a clear idealised beauty but at the same time a conflict is being highlighted, the struggle between man and nature. Time is visible to us through the degradation of these debris; the continuous decomposition of the material, while nature is constantly growing. The past and the present seem to be linked together. It seems we live in a constant delay, where the preoccupation is all focused on conservation.

We met with this fantastic duo at ORME, a place where both Ala & Alma feel at ease and care for a lot. We had our first cherries of the season, in a space that is so charmingly evocative. Ala told us that many artisans and creatives from different parts of the world have sublet her studio through time, the dedication of each one of them – including her own, resonates through its walls. 

You lived many years abroad between, tell us a bit about that era of your life.

London gave me the base and tools to discover my interests, but New York gave me the space to explore and make mistakes without fear of judgement. I made friends who became chosen family members, I worked for, and with people who encouraged me and taught me so much. Even how to put my pathological shyness into use. New York gave me independence, acceptance and tough love. I owe a lot to the city.

Silkscreen printing the way you do it, is considered more of an artisanal type of process – would you call yourself an artisan?

No, not necessarily, even though I much more prefer the term artisan than artist. Silkscreen for me it’s a technique, a language.

You then started exploring the world of teaching, how are you going about that – is it a theoretical or hands-on type of class?

I was invited to do a workshop at Naba last fall and I loved the experience. I would say it was one third theory and the rest hands-on, it was so much fun.

Looking up at her mother with a starry gaze, is Alma. A bright young girl, with enchanting long dark hair, and deep brown eyes. She is steady minded and extremely curious, learning and thriving from the influence of both her mother’s and father’s creative worlds. She is growing up blessed with the exposure to multiculturality, experiencing her mum’s artistic point of view in her day to day, and surrounded by the beauties of the eternal city.

What does a day with Alma at the studio look like?

I try to keep the two separate, when possible. If I’m at the studio I try to cut out the space and time to dedicate only to work, same thing when I am with Alma. I try to create conditions to help myself be fully present and not constantly switching focus – which I find very stressful. Now that she has grown up she comes more often, for instance we are now preparing a gift for someone together, I like to think of it as our first collaboration.

Do you feel your art has changed/evolved since being mother to Alma?

Definitely my process of working, I am now obliged to plan everything and be better at multitasking, something that doesn’t come naturally to me. We discussed it just recently with my friend and artist Lulu Nuti, being an artist and being a mother share both a sense of care, responsibility and sacrifice. It’s a bit of a paradox as Italy loves to convey this image and importance of family, yet, has no real program that supports nor protects mothers, let alone mothers who are artists.

Do you choose Alma’s clothing, or does she already show her own taste?

She does have a strong sense of style, it is probably an in between thing right now, but I do want her to be able to explore her own taste and personality. Most of our clothes are vintage, I am trying to buy less but buy better.

At BEA studio we create illustrative stories, our inspiration comes from the world, its different cultures and the beautiful beings living it. A lot of your silkscreen art is about nature, plants, and the natural textures of earth that go unnoticed – we really relate with that type of observation of our surroundings.

Which of our collections do you like and relate with the most?

I am a sucker for prints and colours, so my attraction to your designs was immediate. The Beast-Mode for sure, but also Tokyo Nostalgia, and the collaboration with Zazielab.

Do you and Alma like to do matchy-matchy outfits? 

NO! never ever ever, my sister and I are still recovering from wearing matchy-matchy outfits.

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