VeroDalla, from Beaune, France, began her career in gastronomy and ran a restaurant in her native Burgundy, before receiving a deeper, more interior call. In 2005, at the age of 35, an "encounter" with poppies reveals to her her true nature: to be an artist. After starting in her region and launching her first exhibitions in 2007, she discovers, in 2010, the call within the call. During her first exhibition in New York, she vibrates so strongly for this city, feels such a correspondence between the external ambient energy and her own inner quest, that she recognizes a second call: to leave everything, except her art, and to move to Manhattan to "show the beauty, the purity, the harmony in a concern for well-being and appeasement."1 "I can't really explain it. It is of the order of the spiritual. It is a direct relationship with the buildings of the city. When I look at them, I really feel like I am connected to them. I have experienced emotions so beautiful, so pure, and so strong, never experienced in France before."2

 

Vero is a woman of fire and of life, incredibly opened to others. Encounters are the source of her inspiration, even though she does not deny the "work" that is required to go out to the streets and let herself be caught by the boiling life of Manhattan. She is not so much on the lookout, but rather simply available for an authentic meeting with another human being. "The interest, it's the human being. I think that my interest for the human being comes from my own story. From my suffering and the observation of the world, I realized that before being an individual in a society, we are a human being, in the deep sense of the term. And the relationship is much more rich from human being to human being than from individual to individual, it's not truncated by religion, education or society. I don't care about color, physical aspect or religion when I am with someone. I seek the person, the original being." This unceasing quest, sometimes oppressive, sometimes gnawing, was reflected in her work through the very original creation of the LivenLulu. She wanted to “create a universal figure devoid of external traits and far removed from pre-existing creatures." Thus were born the LivenLulu. "Not really man, not really woman; not yellow, nor grey, black, or white; not from the left, nor from the right; not from the top, nor from the bottom; and yet…”3

 

VeroDalla accomplishes the incredible: to transform the suffering into a creative force. Her will and her artistic genius find transcendence in her natural capacity to reveal a true suffering, allowing the emergence of a real peace. It is her double mission: "I desire to infuse into my work this appeasement, to transmit it not only to my friends, but also to the unknown persons, so that people may recover their hearts.” For this reason, the meeting with the LivenLulu is often very strong for those who happen to be passing by and catch a glimpse of their presence. It is not uncommon that people remain seized, emotionally moved before these beings coming from another world. But are they really so far from us? "A lot of people around me are not feeling very well. Men or women, regardless of their origin or their age…They understand that something is wrong. I wish to bring the human out of those persons. All consistently tell me thank you. They are rediscovering a part of themselves. I do not solve their problems but I provide moments of well-being." Currently, the LivenLulu creatures are miniature size; however, VeroDalla is working towards their life-size actualization.

Artist by vocation, and deeply human. For VeroDalla, one is at the service of the other, creating a strong unity in her life. "By my art, I try to make the people more aware of the human. My art is an extension of what I live at the most direct level of the encounter and of the understanding of the Being. I think that the term 'humanism' has been misused, distorted, and equated to a society, but it is the one which would best correspond to my work. At the root of my work, there is a passion for the human being."

 

See more pictures on VeroDalla's Website.

 

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