The 30-year-old from Caerano and the canvases with the stars: from Quagliarella to Mertens, up to Ronaldo and Pope Francis
/ CAERANO
Combine two passions and rediscover your works at the International Football Museum. Morris Spagnol, 30, lives in Caerano, where he runs the YishuLab art workshop. The first passion is art, which the young man managed to turn into a job. Then there is the one for football. Thanks to the push of a player friend, here’s the idea: why not make some pictures with the footballers’ shirts? The thing works, requests arrive from Serie A and now Morris has in his hands the autographed shirts of Cristiano Ronaldo and Pope Francis to be framed and exhibited at the International Football Museum in Rome. “I am an artist, I started making works in 2015 – begins Spagnol – I have participated in various exhibitions in Italy and I have concentrated on clothing and the personalization of clothes, as well as continuing to make paintings”. The Caeranese introduces himself like this, in simple words, and explains how his idea of success was born: “My friend the footballer Riccardo Martignago, who now plays in Ravenna, asked me to make pictures, in my style, with t-shirts worn in career. I take this opportunity to thank him again, if it weren’t for him I might never have thought of it. The pandemic breaks out and Morris reflects: «In quarantine I was convinced, I wrote to various Serie A players, at worst they would not have answered me. Instead, I received good feedback and indeed with some I remained on good terms, for example with Spolli and Tonelli of Sampdoria who brought me Quagliarella, Candreva, Reina and also Mertens, Insigne and so on. Furthermore, Chiellini asked me to go and see him ».
Romero, Pinsoglio, Pasa, Pulzetti and the Giovinco brothers: these are some of the players, in addition to those mentioned, for which Morris has created paintings. While others, such as Petagna, Jorginho and Koulibaly have made it known that they will soon send their shirts to Caerano. This is how the young artist describes his modus operandi: «I use a mixed technique. I remove the team badge from the shirt, create the base and hang the shirt with the club logo on one side. For example, Benali sent me the medal from Serie B winners and I put it in the picture, together with the jersey worn in the promotion race, to pay homage to the climb to Serie A ». Spagnol remains particularly attached to his early works: “The paintings that gave me the greatest satisfaction are those of Spolli and Tonelli because they made me understand that I had achieved a first goal: up to a year earlier nobody knew me and now they send me the jerseys. When I read the senders with important names I get excited ».
An emotion that perhaps will have reached its peak when the International Football Museum proposed a collaboration to Morris: to make paintings to display with the Real Madrid shirt worn by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2016 Champions League final in Milan and the jersey of the San Lorenzo with the name of Pope Francis and with a lot of autograph. The two high-quality prices arrived at the foot of Montello and Morris wasted no time in creating the paintings: «I felt anxious while I was creating the works because both have the original signature. It wasn’t easy because I had the idea of throwing color on and maybe making mistakes ».
ACaerano Morris is at work these days. Spagnol was not limited only to football, on the contrary, even the president of Olimpia Milano asked him for a painting, with a red and white tank top, which was then given as a gift, for Christmas, to a customer. Finally, there are the next steps to overcome: «First of all I would like to go and see the players – concludes Morris – then the idea is to make pictures for players who play outside to widen the pelvis a little. I’m done one step at a time, I don’t make films. I would also like to throw myself into the world of music and publishing, then put books, CDs or gold records in the pictures ». –