This article contains adult content.
Spine-chilling erotica is Italian artist Frida Castelli‘s outlet for coping with an intensely passionate long-distance relationship. The Milan-based artist draws pictures of herself in moments of ecstasy, often substituting her lover for rough objects that pierce, shred, or penetrate her body. “Each artwork is a celebration of love for my man,” Castelli tells The Creators Project.
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A typical Castelli ‘gram adheres to the format of a sexy selfie or an amateur porn screenshot, twisted by the addition of a drill, a cactus, or in one case, a colony of bees. “In my drawings you can find the roots of my most intimate emotions,” she explains. “I’m drawing the story of my long-distance relationship, and each work is an attempt to analyze my feelings, to know them, and to try and rule them.”
Sometimes her emotions are dark, but Castelli illustrates the extreme pleasure that makes the relationship worthwhile. “It is a dialogue between him and me, where you can only read my point of view, but it is an intense love story, punctuated by moments of physical solitude but also by meetings that leave a legacy of poetry.” In one, Castelli is surrounded by birds, balancing nude on a sheet music staff. In another, her back arches in the perfect curve of a fibonacci spiral. With nearly 5,000 likes, it was her most popular Instagram post of 2016 by far.
For such a personal conversation, it seems counterintuitive that it would take place on a public Instagram account, broadcast to 71k followers. Castelli parries any discomfort, saying, “I never thought of being able to reach so many people. My intent was just talk to my man using an unconventional channel. I am very pleased that so many people follow me, and honestly I’m very surprised, but does not change my goal.”
She recently released a selection of her drawings as a book called Love Is The Devil, available only through her own shop. For a self-published author, there’s precious little information about her displayed, which she explains is a personal preference. “I do not feel very comfortable talking about myself,” she says. “I prefer to introduce myself through my drawings.” Follow Castelli’s struggle to rule her feelings in the tantalizing works below.
The theme of healing through art is essential to Castelli’s next endeavor, a line of band-aid-inspired jewelry that will soon be available on her online store. She’s also working on another volume of Love Is the Devil. Follow Frida Castelli’s visual narrative of her stormy romance on Instagram.
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