With glue and matches, dreaming about Freedom - The Artist's Story

[Sincriffid]

This is what the Artist, Giuseppe Nisi "Nisiello", tells us in an Italian Newspaper Article, 27 years ago.

"An ex-Inmate told us how he realized his artworks, by Franco Sammartino.
"I've erased 10 long years of my life and I've finally returned to normal life. I'm 47 and I have a great desire to forget."
It starts like this the letter that Giuseppe Nisi, from Acqui Terme, Alessandria province (ITALY), married, a long stay in jail behind... "Everything started in 1962 when, left Niscemi, my city of birth in Province of Caltanissetta, I went to north Italy, where I found a job as apprentice. I was young and also a bit rebel and I was proud of my motorcycle bought with my first money. I stll remember it, beautiful and shiny, it was an MV. In this motorcycle I had my first problem with the law: an infraction, the stop of a Carabiniere, my strong complaints. Driving with no license, outrage at public official, insults and resistance... there was enough to arrest me and they did it: 13 months in jail, couldn't believe it, I was still underage. In jail, at Acqui Terme, I got to know a totally different world: Gangsters, Mafiosi but also frightened boys that went in for stupidity, just as me. But that experience wrote my future. I constantly said to myself that once out I would never again go against the law, I constantly said to myself that I would be a good boy.
But it wasn't like that, because once out every door was closed: the usual story.
The marginalization and loneliness pushed me on doing exactly the opposite of what I was thinking in jail. From that moment I started going in and out of jail. Thefts, normally, to get what I needed to live. It went like this for other 10 years.
It seems that I'm trying to justify what I've done, as I was a "Victim of the System" but it isn't like that. I see I've done bad things and for that I'm asking sorry to everyone I've harmed. But I've changed, I said, and I want to start again, even if it seems strange, this desire popped out while I was in jail.
It was in Jail where I knew a real Artist... a funny guy that for passing the time he was building sailing ships with tiny fire matches and that patiently glued them together. "You can sell them", he said to encourage myself to follow him in this path, "They pay you well and also they help you pass the time". I tried, but instead of building sailing ships I started using those matches as they were brushes. I started making famous people or animals, that I found really beautiful. My models, of course, were the photos on the posters that entered in jail. If only I could receive letters of appreciation for my works", continues Giuseppe Nisi, in art name "Nisiello","I would be really happy and I would feel proud. Also I hope that my old friends of the past, seeing this will recognize me and contact me, it would be great beacuse in jail, I said, I've known lot of good people whom I became attached to. Thank you."

Written by Artist's Assistant.