When lockdown hit Italy last March as coronavirus cases soared, Italian artist and creative director Marta Grossi found herself stuck in a rented apartment in Milan with just a small suitcase of clothes and a watercolor travel palette. “I was supposed to stay for around 10 days, but then the news of the pandemic hit,” Grossi explains. Grossi’s subsequent sink art series, Wash your hands and keep creative, helped her and thousands of her followers on Instagram navigate the psychological challenges of lockdown. 

Locked Down in Italy

Before the coronavirus pandemic first rocked the world, Grossi was a frequent traveler. She had also lived in various places around the globe including Hong Kong for nine years. She came to Milan with the idea of staying a couple of weeks to complete some work for a client but found herself trapped there for months. 

In March 2020, Milan and the surrounding region of Lombardy became Italy’s worst-hit area by the COVID-19 emergency. “There were some days that even going to the supermarket felt like an apocalypse,” Grossi says. 

The coronavirus regulations took a mental and physical toll. “Your turn on the radio and everything is like, wash your hands, wash your hands,” says Grossi. “I was starting to have bruises on my hands because I was washing them so much.”

Thus the sink has taken on great significance during the pandemic, at it was this that became the feature of Grossi’s lockdown art project. “I was washing the watercolor brush in the sink and I don’t know what happened, I just decided to paint,” she recounts. Using her little watercolor travel kit, she painted a delicate design of cherry blossoms on the ceramic surface. 

Wash Your Hands and Keep Creative

Grossi posted the picture on Instagram and in a few days it garnered multiple responses asking her to paint more. “In that moment, I thought, while I am locked here and I have colors I’m going to do this.” The sink drawings became both a routine and a powerful release for Grossi. “I needed to release stress and the fear of what was happening.” 

Grossi’s sink art project, named Wash your hands and keep creative, touched many people around the world. “The disconnection that people were feeling, the same as me, the uncertainty of the moment, it was connecting all of us and it gave a purpose to my quarantine,” Grossi says. 

Grossi often finds inspiration in nature and the outdoors. “I usually need to walk a lot and cycle and travel to different places to get inspiration, to be creative,” she explains. Unable to do this under lockdown, her sink designs brought nature indoors. On the ceramic surface, she painted coral exploding with color, translucent jellyfish, delicate flowers and crashing waves. “I thought, why don’t I take things that I miss and I can’t see inside this space.”  

After 24 hours, Grossi would wash away the design, a process she would capture on video and post to Instagram. “I like to call this transformation,” she says. It was a literal cleaning process but it also had the effect of keeping her focused and motivated. 

Ephemeral Art

In a similar way to Wash your hands and keep creative, the project that sealed Grossi’s reputation as an artist was also based on the theme of ephemerality. While in Indonesia, she created the series Banana Graffiti. The project saw her draw designs on banana skins, which she would throw away after eating. “Once I peel it and it goes back to mother nature, that moment of transformation is when the magic happens. I have to enjoy the moment I’m living and take what is there because life is fragile.” 

The series went viral and she says this was the moment she decided to move from working in advertising and marketing agencies and to branch out on her own. She could begin fulfilling both sides of her character. “I have this double side of me, one is very strategic and branding oriented, and the other side is super artistic and crafty,” she says. As such, her work now ranges from commercial projects to magazine production to live performances. “Of course, it takes double the energy but it’s the way I’m trying to express myself,” she adds. 

Art Is Not Elite

Both Banana Graffiti and Wash your hands and keep creative are an expression of themes central to Grossi’s philosophy. “I don’t want to think that art is for elite. Why can’t this inspiration and connection that comes through art and creativity be found in daily life?” So she opts for ordinary objects like a banana or a sink to communicate a message and tell a story, often in a way that brings a smile to people’s faces. “I can use my imagination to deliver a message and change my mood,” she says. 

Grossi acknowledges that despite being an overwhelming and anxious time, the pandemic lockdown was a key impetus behind her sink art series and her creativity during that moment. In fact, the most important message, she says, is that “The world might collapse outside but creativity will never stop.”

To see more unique artwork by Marta Grossi, check out her website and follow her on Instagram, @martabunny.