Germana Carillo Interview with Antonio Federico Art, artist who with just a few strokes manages to tell the fragility and beauty of the human being
There’s an invisible thread that connects us all, a subtle line that runs through emotions, silences, and gazes. It’s that thread that Illustrated Humanity manages to make visible, with just a few strokes and a depth that goes straight to the heart.
Behind every drawing, behind every seemingly simple line, hides a powerful message: rediscovering what makes us human. In a world that rushes forward, where emotions become increasingly rarefied and empathy seems like a luxury, art invites us to stop, to breathe, to truly feel.
They are the illustrations of Antonio Federico Art that speak to us of fragility and love, of pain, acceptance, and rebirth. They tell the most authentic part of us, the one we often forget to listen to. Complex words aren’t needed: just a mark, a gesture, a stroke to remind us that we’re all part of a bigger picture—that of life itself, which connects us not only to other human beings, but also to animals and the planet.
In this interview, the artist takes us inside the heart of his work, where art becomes a universal language and the creative gesture transforms into an act of love toward humanity and the Earth.
The “Illustrated Humanity” project had a powerful and immediate impact. How was it born?
It actually came about very naturally. I don’t think there’s a precise moment when “Illustrated Humanity” was born: I think it was always inside me, in my desire to communicate what I felt. As a child I was very closed off and introverted, difficult moments had taken away my smile, drawing was my way to connect with others. I would draw with pen on napkins and loose papers, I couldn’t look for proper sheets when the need to communicate was so immediate.
Then, over time, this need became a language. I started publishing the drawings made on impulse on social media. That’s how, spontaneously, “Illustrated Humanity” took shape: not as a planned project, but as something I had always had inside.
Your illustrations manage to tell deep themes with disarming simplicity. In your opinion, why does visual art have this immediate power to “awaken” consciousness?
I firmly believe in the power of the mark, in its immediacy. I’ve always studied the stroke, searching for a mark that can contain everything, that can tell something great in just a few gestures.
I remember when, for the first time, I arrived in Rome: I was fascinated by the subway. There, among faces and looks of all kinds, I felt that every person had a story to tell. I love observing everything and I like listening to people, it takes very little for me to understand them. We often take many things for granted, we need to value our individuality.
Many of your works speak of bullying, diversity, love, and human fragility. If you had to choose an urgent message to transmit today, what would it be and why?
I would say: let’s strip away everything that surrounds us and return to the essence. Let’s seek the authenticity of the human being.
We are intelligent creatures, part of creation, and we should use this intelligence to do good, not to isolate ourselves or destroy. I deeply believe in spirit and soul, we are connected to everything that exists. We are part of it.
The message I want to convey is to find ourselves again, true peace is within each of us. We are all connected. Only by rediscovering our humanity can we truly return to living in harmony.
Your drawings have gone viral during delicate moments in the news. How do you experience this responsibility of giving “visual form” to such strong collective emotions?
Yes, it’s true, my drawings were often born in difficult moments, but it’s also in difficult moments that we learn the most: everything that doesn’t destroy us, shapes us.
Pain is a silent teacher. It tests us, but at the same time returns to us the awareness of what truly matters.
When everything is going well, we live without thinking too much; when something breaks, however, we notice the value of simple things: breathing, walking, having someone beside us.
I don’t believe pain serves to make us suffer, but to make us “feel” again. It’s a form of awakening: it brings us back to our most human essence. Many of my drawings have gone viral in delicate moments, and each time I realize how great the responsibility I carry is. I believe this ability of mine to reach far must be used for important purposes. It’s a gift, and like every gift it must be used with commitment.
I see it as a mission: to transform emotion into awareness, to give voice to what we often can’t say with words. I like to believe that each of my drawings can be a small seed—something that makes you think, that touches the heart, that awakens empathy. It’s this awareness that pushes me to go forward, with gratitude and respect for what I do.
It’s never just a drawing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DO1sjLDCCro/
We at GreenMe talk every day about respect—for people, for the environment, for life. How much do you think art can help cultivate empathy not only among people, but also toward the planet?
I believe art can teach us to “feel.” Empathy is not only between human beings, but toward every form of life. Art, with its visual and symbolic power, can help us recognize the connection we have with the world, with other creatures, with the universe itself.
We are part of a whole, and only by understanding this can we truly learn respect. Art, after all, is a tool to awaken this dormant awareness.
Is there any theme that touches you most, in relation to the social and cultural changes we are experiencing? Or a more significant moment that pushed you to continue on your path?
Every social change affects me. What touches me most, today, is the atrophying of emotions. I increasingly see people who don’t feel, who don’t blush, who don’t get embarrassed anymore, who don’t let themselves be touched by anything. Cold people, accustomed to holding everything back.
This is what scares me most: the loss of the ability to feel.
I believe the most beautiful task an image can have is precisely to move, to make something vibrate inside those who look at it.
When one of my drawings manages to make millions of unknown people feel close, united by the same feeling, I feel that art has accomplished its highest purpose. Because emotion is what makes us human, and we must never allow it to be extinguished.
Drawing helps me stay connected to what matters: the truth of emotions. Every time someone writes to me saying that one of my drawings made them reflect or moved them, I feel I’m going in the right direction. This is what pushes me to continue.
If art can be seen as a mirror of society, how do you imagine the evolution of humanity in the future?
I like to think that, despite everything, humanity will know how to find itself again. Perhaps we’ll still have to go through difficult moments, but I believe that man has within himself a light that never goes out.
Art is the mirror of this light: it reflects our fragility, but also our ability to be reborn. I imagine a future in which humanity will rediscover its essence, its connection with life. A more aware, more empathetic, more true, more HUMAN future.
