Meaning

A black and white illustration of an antique key with a circular bow and ornate shaft.

Stanza [stan-zuh] N:  a verse in a poem, from Italian “room, standing place.”

A stanzaic poem uses white space to create temporal and visual pauses.

A stanzaic drawing leaves white space to be filled by personal memory.

A stanza home remembers and celebrates the places that shape us.

Method

Black and white illustration of a fountain pen with an ornate, segmented body, creating a line on paper.

A gestural line drawing, which emphasizes essence and movement to capture the aliveness of memory.

Made from a photograph of the home and translated by eye to offer the personal touch of something made by hand.

Created with a fountain pen and black india ink on 12” x 16” 140 lb archival cold press paper suitable for framing.

Cost

A simple sketch of a sealed envelope with a circular stamp in the center.

Starting at $550 plus shipping*.

* Drawings are wrapped in protective glassine paper, layered between cardboard, bubble wrapped, and packaged in a cardboard box.

A young woman with long brown hair wearing a black turtleneck shirt and black pants stands with her arms crossed, smiling slightly. She is in an art gallery or studio with abstract artwork on the walls behind her.

The Artist

Isabella Saraceni is an interdisciplinary artist with over 20 years of drawing experience.

Her art practice expresses the uncertainty and precarity of life.

Through her other work as a garden designer and end-of-life doula, Stanza Homes came about as a way to remember and celebrate the places that shape us.

She earned a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Connecticut and an MFA in Painting and Drawing at The Ohio State University.

Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and in Florence, Italy, where she was awarded a grant to create work inspired by women of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

She has received numerous other grants, fellowships, and awards.

Isabella currently lives in upstate New York.