How Lily came to life

This is the story of Lily Delizia, born in London in the early 2000s from the body, mind and soul of Beatrice, her human incubator, born and raised in Italy, already in her mid-twenties, a graduate of the Liceo Artistico in Florence and an established graphic designer and children’s book illustrator.

It was a cloudy afternoon in a small Bounds Green flat when Lily saw the light, but the moment of her birth (at least in the soul of her creator) was as luminous as the Apollo 13 disaster, as loud as the rubbish trucks at five in the morning, and as shocking as a Radiohead track on first listen.

From then on, newborn Lily never stopped giving birth, with her graphic style BOLD and assured. Dark, thick outline lines and flat fields of fill, preferably red and gold, approach the immediate language of a poster or a tattoo, yet hide a story with a high percentage of surrealism. This tension, between decisive, apparently simple graphic form and the tender, strange tale that emerges on a second, deeper reading, is what qualifies these works as without precedent.

Her textile pieces become three-dimensional while the creatures portrayed still want to be perceived as 2D beings, in a dance that animates them endlessly.

Lily’s work shares DNA with folklore, illustration and street art but is none of these. It is a transversal tale of sensations, thoughts, hopes and fears. A unique story.