Marbelleta

Sometimes life invites you to join the ride. Other times, life tells you it isn't the right moment.

You just have to be there, and life will let you know.

I met Violeta through her best friend, Paula.

We had never met in person. Instagram became our place to connect, to talk, and to get to know each other.

Not because that's what we wanted, but because Violeta simply had no time. So I waited.

I can't say it wasn't frustrating. Every time I asked if we could meet, the answer was always the same:

"Sorry, I'm busy."

A top model. A single mother.

Looking at her Instagram, it seems like she's living the dream.

Two years later, one day, she was standing at my door.

Tall, beautiful, striking. A huge smile on her face. Her arms opened wide for a hug and two kisses.

"Wow... I'm here."

Entering my studio is like entering a different world. Time slows down. There is a different tempo in the air.

Ludovico is playing softly in the background. Photographs are everywhere.

We sit down.

We talk.

We get to know each other.

I love meeting beautiful people—not from the outside in, but from the inside out.

Sensitive people.

People who are exactly who they are.

We started with simple portraits. Nothing special. No styling. The clothes she arrived in.

Just her.

Then we shared a short meditation.

And then...

The first tear appeared.

Sometimes tears come only during meditation, and I never get the chance to capture them with my camera.

This time, I did.

We started talking about that tear.

It came from a big turning point in her life.

Becoming a single mother in her early twenties had forced Violeta to grow up much earlier than most people ever have to.

She didn't know what to expect from the next chapter.

So we decided to explore that feeling together.

Her daughter joined some of our sessions. We painted together. We talked. We asked questions, searching for the ones that mattered most. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.

After one of those meetings, I wrote this song.

in the heart of the mountain, where shadows reside,
Lies a stone, tough and stern, with a secret inside.
Rugged and cold, through storms it has cried,
But within its core, softness hides.
A fortress of granite, unyielding and wide,
Yet, crack it open, find warmth it can't hide.
Like a soul that's been through high tide,
It's a hard rock outside, soft inside.
A testament to resilience, by time's test tried,
Standing firm against winds that have pried.
Yet, within its depths, a gentle tide,
A reminder, strength and softness coincide.

As the project evolved, I realized I wanted to transform her emotions into something physical.

A rare piece of marble.

One unlike any I had ever seen.

A white marble that expresses strength through its brightness.

The black veins became the lines of limitation. Never straight. Always broken, twisting and spiraling, just as she challenges them every day.

The grey became the traces of experience.

The gold became the purity she carries within herself, quietly guiding her as she follows her own truth.

I decided to divide the project into two chapters.

The first was the clean white marble. A place without limits, but also nowhere to hide.

The second was the marble itself.

And that's how the project found its name.

Marbelleta.

This project stayed with me long after we finished creating it.

Every time I look at these artworks, I discover something I hadn't seen before.

I hope, when you look at them, you'll feel something too.