In conjunction with NYPL's Italian American Cultural Heritage Month celebrations, I spoke with Greenwich Village-based artist Rossella BLUE Mocerino about her experience in creating art, and how it relates to her cultural heritage.

Rossella BLUE Mocerino:

I am fiercely proud of being Italian. I am passionately in love with Venice. I am a longtime New Yorker. Neither Venice nor New York is the city of my origin. I was born in Tuscany and at the age of 12 my family emigrated to New York. At 16 I went back for a visit and I realized that even though my life was now unfolding in a new country, Italy and its culture would always be an important part of my life. It was also during this first visit that I decided I could carry the Italian spirit within me by becoming an artist. 

Whenever I find myself in my native land, and that is very often, I am struck by an immense desire to create but it is only when I get back to New York that I do the actual creating. The Venice Carnival continuously inspires me and I turn this inspiration into artworks in the West Village of Manhattan where I reside. I exhibit my work both in Italy and here. You could say I have a foot in Italy and the other one in the USA.

I don’t think I could live anywhere else but in Manhattan. I once asked an Italian tourist from Rome how she enjoyed New York. I was struck by her answer. She said that she loved New York because she smelled freedom in the air. I am surrounded by people who, like me, have come from other places. Their experiences enrich my own. And New York has the most famous Italian-American of the moment. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been taking care of us while we face an unprecedented situation. I can’t travel to Italy now but as soon as I can, I will pack, put on my mask and go.

Books Inspired by Venice 

• Venice, Pure City by Peter Ackroyd
• Venice, A New History by Thomas F. Madden
• Venice, Recipes Lost and Found by  Katie Caldesi
• Venice: A Literary Guide for Travelers by Marie José Gransard
• The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore 
• Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

What better way to show gratitude and love for the two countries in my life than by offering them flowers . . . lots and lots of flowers.