Dream Interview - Roberto Toderico

Being an artist also means meeting other like-minded souls on your way. It would therefore be a real shame not to stop occasionally and chat a bit among us, savoring the sublime moment of sharing artistic emotions!

Inspired by the theory of the five stages in the dream world de Ambrogio Teodosio Macrobio (V century) through the Commentarii in Somnium Scipioni, a Dream Interview that will take you into the world of unconventional art.
Artists of the Dark, Fantasy, Gothic & Horror genre welcomed into the arms of Morpheus to open their subconscious, in the merry haunted mansion of Illusorya in the company of ghosts and delicious teas ... And today, as a soundtrack a bit of healthy Heavy Metal, because in the merry haunted mansion there is Roberto Toderico !

[My name is Roberto Toderico, born in 1980, I am a Neapolitan illustrator dedicated to the most extreme Heavy Metal, I have been working in the scene since 2008 as a cover artist, merchandise designer and I collaborate with several European festivals and international record companies. However, I don't have a threatening nickname like my colleagues because all the coolest names were already taken when I arrived ...]

☾ Insomnium - A warm welcome to the REM phase where thoughts, worries and desires capriciously assault the stillness of sleep, turning into dreams without particular meaning.
Would you like to share with us one of the thoughts that most cross your mind, related to reality or simply a great desire, from the soul of an artist that you are?

First of all, I thank you for welcoming me into this unreal dimension, which I feel more appropriate and comfortable to me despite being more intricate and difficult to describe with words.
Drawing is undoubtedly the most effective means to unleash the subconscious and bring back into reality scattered fragments of that swampy and difficult (but essential for me) territory that is the dream. Reality has always been close to me, which is why I am happy to have turned in my favor my being perpetually with "my head in the clouds" and to have made it a life mission.
To date I don't think I have great wishes but I still have a lot of curiosity and the more I go on, the more I have the enthusiasm to experiment in the arts and challenge myself in unknown territories.
(For example, I recently decided to learn to play! Yes, at my tender age, I can't even ring the intercom!)

☾ Visum - We are entering the real dream world, chaotic figures around you begin to move making you believe you are still in reality.
In the In the field of art, one often encounters disheartening situations, such as the theft of one's work and ideas or rejection by galleries, publishers or companies. We absolutely do not want to go into specifics, but to know your state of mind. Did it lead you to want to abandon this project? Or did it give you even more strength to embark on your path as an artist? Do you want to leave advice or a spur to those who are living this same experience?

More than advice or encouragement, I think that certain aspects of living as an artist need endless reflections because you never live "regularly" as with a normal profession and everything changes constantly so a good dose of adaptability is indispensable.
Discomforting situations are simply a constant in life: the figures of shit, the countless failures that are collected over time (in any field! Not only in art), you get callus, you have a laugh and you go forward without looking too far back!
As for the "theft" of the work, the copy, the idea ended up in other hands and so on: obviously these are hard situations to digest (which have happened to me) and, with the advent of social media, they happen all the time
However, I believe that we who "create" are only a means and can only guide the first steps of a work towards the outside world ... What happens next is no longer our business.
Someone will remember our name, others will pass by and the same goes for the economic side: sometimes we will make it and sometimes not, but this must also be faced with a bit of cheek and healthy indifference!
Otherwise enthusiasm it goes out and it is better to abandon the boat ... It is not at all easy to live in art, but it is the price to pay for not having a monotonous life!

☾ Oraculum - We are in limbo between the world of reality and that of the dead, where people dear to us or who are and / or were close to us manifest themselves to carry the message of great revelations.
Often the people around an artist can prove to be a great inspiration for their future, whether in a negative or positive way. Given the interview, obviously it is clear that you are pursuing this very daring path ... Tell us what were the words (or facts) that really spurred you to become what you are.

This is really hard to tell in a few lines, how I got to this point in my life is a bit of a little odyssey. I can honestly say that "a series of unfortunate events" have led me to be who I am and do what I do today.
Personal events, painful falls and strenuous ascents; said so it is nothing different from everyone's life, with the difference that at first reaction I took the pen in hand, without a plan, without a precise idea, moved only by the passion for Metal that I carry around like a curse since I was a child.
It all started from there, from an instinctive reaction to a life that was going very tight for me, someone had turned my music down ... And there is nothing I hate more to the world!

☾ Visio - The premonitory dream, what we never imagined to dream, now appears in our mind.
The question of how do you imagine your future it is decidedly banal and rather contradictory; we therefore wish to know how you see yourself now, in the present.
Also, would you like us to participate in your ongoing projects?

The question about the future is not trivial but it certainly does not belong to me because I don't like to plan for the long term or set future goals. I live for the day and, given the current moonlight (covid, plague, famine, grasshoppers, hysterical masses, etc.), I think I have made an almost wise choice!
Now for me it is year zero and it is also, in some ways, for the music industry for which I have been giving blood in my work for years. But the ideas are many, the desire is alive and we don't even stop in front of the Apocalypse.
Outside of artistic ideas, in the not too distant future, I see myself outside the city in search of a more suitable place to a bear than to a human.

☾ Somnium - The great revelation hidden among the arches of the structure of our dreams. The absolute protagonists of the story, unaware of the reality left behind but aware of our deepest self.
Often, artists have their own work of the heart to which they are emotionally attached and it is difficult to abandon it, no matter if it is now in the hands of others. What was yours and why is it so important? Tell us the story of her, who is the protagonist ... Like a narrated dream.