The Verve: Di Chiara-Hardin blends old, new using different styles

Angelica Di Chiara-Hardin paints memories of her growing-up years in picturesque Italy and visits to many places in Europe.

“I was a wild child,” she said, “I had to explore.”

When she was young, she decided that languages and art would be her future. “Well actually, people are my first love, I love to mingle and learn about them.” Languages and art are her way of connecting with people.

While attending the university in Padua, Italy, she met some friends who lived in Santa Cruz, Calif. Later, she traveled to Santa Cruz, married and stayed, moving to Spokane in 1995.

With degrees in education, languages and psychology, Di Chiara-Hardin explored her artistic nature by drawing and painting while raising two children. She began taking classes in Spokane, fine-tuning different mediums and developing her style. In 2004 she began showing her work and has shown regularly throughout the area since.

She works with acrylics, adding mediums for sheen and texture. Her still-life pictures, cityscapes and landscapes are warm and inviting, representing simple elegance and her times spent exploring. She often works from photos taken in her travels.

Her contemporary pieces incorporate different styles with paintings within paintings upon bold and modern backgrounds Her tile murals allow customers to experience the Italian countryside within the designs of their kitchens and baths.

Her favorite subjects are old buildings and unique architecture which are often in contrast to the bright and blooming landscapes that surround them and demonstrate the ever-changing world. “I want people who see my work to open their minds and recognize that there’s so much to see and know about life in general. There is so much more to discover about ourselves and the world,” Di Chiara-Hardin said.

She hopes that her work will blend divisions between cultures and that, through her pieces that illustrate serenity and solitude, people will conclude that “even in loneliness, one can find happiness and piece of mind.”

She creates her work in a studio, or “dungeon” as she calls it, in the basement of her North Side home. “I spend a lot of time in here, normally daily,” she said, “and if I’m not doing, I’m thinking.” Many prepped canvases lay in wait for an idea to develop. Some pieces remain unfinished. “I leave it until the punch comes.”

Di Chiara-Hardin is showing her work at Arbor Crest Winery in downtown Spokane through March, ongoing at the Gallery of Thum’ at the Steam Plant Square, Utopia in the Valley Mall and in July at the Liberty Cafe at Aunties Bookstore.

Her sales are good, though she said she does better on the East Coast. Her goal is to continue to communicate with others by teaching, which she does through the Community Colleges of Spokane, and showing her work.

“Life is changing fast,” she said, “I’m still experimenting.”