CURRENT MISSION

"bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from god"

ABOUT ME:

Artist and webdesigner / frequent eater / nomad at heart

http://www.cristinamariani-art.com

I started dreaming with an atlas, continued with a world globe and landed to google maps to discover that travelling is amazing but I need to settle a bit to focus on what makes me happy.

I got graduated at the Art Academy in Milan, Italy, and started to work as an artist. Then, driven by my interest for new technologies (aka pay the rent) I moved to graphic and web design.

In 2012 I decided that art deserved to play the main role in my life so I quitted my job, sold everything and flew to Lisbon to practice my portuguese and recovery my creativity.

In november 2014 I felt my journey in Portugal has come to an end so I decided to come back to Italy, now I'm enthusiastically rediscovering my beautiful country.

What else? I have a huge crush on Southeastern Asia, I love cooking (trying as well to work as a chef) and sharing hilarious conversations.

Sometimes I feel like a goldfish..I have a 4 seconds memory, other times I'm kinda like a rumblefish..when in doubt, just give me something good to sip!

PHILOSOPHY

ABOUT HUMOUR AND PLAY_
Humour has a great importance to me since I believe that sharing the same sense of humour means sharing the same background and philosophy.

Play and humour are the best way to reconsider reality from a different point of view, they turns reality into another color, even if sometimes that color is black (but it's a very bright black!)

ABOUT TRAVELLING_
I believe travelling is a self-awareness and self-improvement process's accelerator, a testing ground for your limits thanks to the almost-total freedom condition and the never-ending excited mood you experience.
To limitate and identify yourself with these restrictions is like going against yourself following a reassuring thinking automatism, the effort is to engage a second struggle towards the opposite direction in order to go beyond them, and this is when the magic happens: you really feel aware of yourself, several metres higher.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I hosted and surfed but at the moment I'm having fun by partecipate in meetings and gatherings, essential when you move to a new city.

I used to host the Artists' Meeting in Lisbon every week, love to share creativity or simply a chat over a drink!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My flatmate introduced me to this amazing world, while I was lving in Milan we hosted a bunch of interesting dudes so here I am to keep alive this habit.

The great thing about hosting people from abroad is to see how much they are excited about things that are routine to you.
It makes me appreciate what I have but also makes me wish to move away to see more...

Interests

Contemporary art, literature, comedy , satire, gardening, web languages, cooking, eating, sleeping, traveling, cycling

• arts
• literature
• design
• contemporary art
• sketching
• coloring
• dancing
• cooking
• recipes
• running
• drinking
• gardening
• traveling
• magic
• cycling
• cartography
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

-selected artists (that means just a few)-

FILM MAKERS: Cohen bros, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Aki Kaurismaki, Howard Hawks, Spike Jonze, Michael Gondry, David Lynch

MUZIK: Radiohead, Tricky, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Dalek, Portishead, Martina Topley-Bird, Erikah Badu, Wu Tang Clan, James Blake, Django Reinhardt, M.I.A., Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, everything Mike Patton does, Sonic Youth, The Dodos, Nicholas Jaar, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Beck, Asaf Avidan, Dj Spooky, Aesop Rock, Outkast, Modeselektor, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobious Pip, Otis Redding, John Zorn, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet

WRITERS: Kurt Vonnegut, David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Don DeLillo, Luigi Pirandello, Italo Calvino, Ennio Flaiano

COMEDIANS: Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Daniele Luttazzi, Ricky Gervais, Larry David, Dylan Moran, Louis CK

Teach, Learn, Share

I am deeply interested in learning how to cook local recipes, I'm currently working on a project between travelling, cooking and sketching.
I was running a small "hidden kitchen restaurant" in Lisbon, so cooking is something I am always in the mood to teach/learn.

I currently live in Rome where I study Textile Art (handweaving and tapestry)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy, Portugal

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