Dr. Filomena

In my line of work (real estate agency and investments) I have the pleasure of meeting many interesting people from all walks of life. Each and every one of them has a story to tell and can make for entertaining company, but some are extra special. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend some time with Ugo Furlan, an Italian illustrator and multimedia artist. He does beautiful work with drawings used in anything from comic books to calendars and business gifts, but I was most impressed with his little foamy sculptures.

Above is an illustration from a ‘where and how to dine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region’ book. A very rough translation of the waiter’s words to the customer: Menu? I don’t know that word, Madam. This is a restaurant, not a library, maam. Come on, just eat. Afterwards, you can read the bill.”

Like I said, I loved Ugo’s little hand-painted dolls made of a sort of a hard rubber combined with silicone, quickly frozen to produce the effect of special effects’ material used in movies. The one that really drew my attention was the little triceratops blowing his toenails dry after careful application of nail polish. It seemed completely unaware of the fact that its purpose in life was to serve as a book stopper and too cute for words. It wasn’t difficult to spot my enthusiasm and kind Ugo let me adopt the cutie pie after branding him with a proper autograph. I’m calling him… Bob 🙂 And no, I don’t think he’s going through a gender identity crisis. Back in the days, all triceratops, both boys and girls, kept two right-foot toenails nicely trimmed and painted red.