Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Isabella Nicastro

Zeppoli di San Giuseppe

Zeppoli pastries are baked and eaten specifically as part of an annual celebration for both the Catholic feast day of St. Joseph and Father’s Day in Italy. A ritual that has been passed down through several generations within my family, it is a practice that is still upheld annually even in Canada. A vast majority of the food preparation/ consumption rituals were adopted and subsequently adapted by Italian-American immigrants to preserve a sense of cultural and religious identity.

“Inspired by a trip to my grandparents’ town of origin in the south of Italy, this body of work seeks to investigate the intersection between my southern Italian ancestral heritage and my upbringing in Canada. A fragmented sense of identity commonly found in second and third generation citizens is dissected through the lens of personal experience. Close-cropped, abnormal compositions juxtapose conventional European methods of oil painting, displacing the viewer from the entire context of the world in which they are immersed, echoing the manner in which I am disconnected from the complete context of my heritage. These works present covert emblems embedded throughout, inquiring how factors such as religion, superstition, and cultural practices have dispersed through my familial lineage by inviting the viewer to observe complexities surrounding spiritual beliefs and the intangible.”