MY LIFE, A GARDEN OF IMAGINATION

Dear guest, welcome to Il Giardino sul Comò! 
My name is Giusi Moliterno and I’m the artist of the fantasy gardens visible in this web site. 
Probably you’re wondering who is the person who is behind the floreal compositions, and for this reason,
I’d like to share with you my story and  the story of the birth of Il Giardino sul Comò.

SEEDS OR SWEETS?

In the sixties, my parents had decided to conquer a better future, and so my father and his brothers moved from the South of Italy to England, a place that gave my childhood a magic taste!
I was a very lively child, always active and dynamic, I ran through the green and damp fields of Bedford, the English city where I grew up.
I used to pick up acorns, little pieces of wood, caterpillars: I was facinated by the nature with its colours and perfums.
I couldn’t stop a moment, by bicycle through the park where I used to climb up the trees, trying to reach the squirrels.

(Photo: me, when I was a child on the left with my sister Rosi, on the right)

And moreover, I went crazy for my father, I loved watching him accurately taking care of the plants and of our garden. 
I watched him in admiration, while he was taking care of the vegetable garden with his attention for each shoot. When my dad gave me some money, instead of using it for sweets I bought flower seeds, for planting them in the tiny plot of garden reserved to me. I waited patiently for seeing happening the magic of the budding of a flower from a seed with its sweet perfume and for discovering how it was loved by butterflies and little bees!  
England was such a rich land for letting my imagination grow fertile, I could freely explore the nature with all its fairies and sprites stories and its enchanted world. I’ve been lucky because I neither read those stories in books, nor I saw them on television or video games: I personally lived these emotions, I freely delved into the parks after school, in order to live a new adventure every day!

BELOVED ITALY, I COME BACK BUT… WHAT A CHALLENGE

When I was about thirteen, my parents decided to come back in Italy.  My sister, our little brother and I were happy in our beautiful house with the garden, in our school which permits us to try each kind of art, musical instrument and sport. Nevertheless, many reasons forced my parents to move. Unfortunately it wasn’t the adventure which they promised to us. Totally the opposite: my parents were considered as all the emigrates from the South, not at the same level of Nothern citizens.
All the charm of nature and of my adventures disappeared, not because in Italy there weren’t woods or trees to climb, but because when I was 13 anni I started to work in factory and then to study.
Do you know the difference between an adult and a child? 
The adult forgets to dream, which instead is naturally for a child. And so, walking in  my free time was enough for me to wake up my imagination and cultivate my little plot of blooming garden.

(A photo of Cantù, the city where I lived in the province of Como).

THE ANGELS AND THE GIFT ARRIVED

Life, immaturity and even social schemes of those times led me to a very premature wedding. I was only 19 and it wasn’t easy to grow without a relief. Nevertheless, I can say that whatever is going to happen in your life is for bringing you something special, something for letting charm enters in your life, even in hard times.
And so, arrived my three angels, my daughters.
And it is with them that I started to dream again. I showed them how arise magic creations using simple materials.
We went walking in the wood, on Sunday morning and then, once come back home I created a composition just in front of them, with their eyes full of amazement and astonishment! I created little wreaths for teachers and compositions for our friends. Each time, I could see how these gifts could bring a great joy to those ones who received them.

A MENTOR JUST NEAR HOME

A thing that now I’m able to appreciate in life is that if you are inside the stream of your dreams and let your talents flow “the Universe” always helps you, inspiring you in such many ways you would never imagine: you just have to be free. So, one morning I was looking for florist sponge beacuse I was preparing  another special creation. I entered in a flower shop, where a florist was planting a bonsai in a polish terracotta vase. He was really curious about what I was going to create with that sponge and decided to come and see my compositions. He was amazed, in his opinion the colours combination was perfect! It was an authentic surprise for me hearing those marvelous comments from an artist like him  and much more, because it concerns something I naturally created, without any kind of technique, born simply from my imagination, with the help of flowers. 

I found a mentor just near home and as soon as I could, I went to help him in his laboratory of gardens and bonsai. It was a very important discover for me, because I could learn different techniques of miniature floral composition that helped me to capture imagination and to realize more complex compositions. After a while, I had to renounce to my mentor: I couldn’t leave alone my babies as I had no one who could looked after them in that moment. My life’s aim was to make everyone happy but I wasn’t strong enough to follow my dreams and so I had to put it apart. But, no one could take my imagination away so I continued creating compositions for parties, birthdays, for the joy of my friends for the sake of creating:
imagination gave me the incitement for living a better future.

JOURNEY IN THE HEART OF ITALY

We leave. We decide to move in my ex-husband’s Region, Umbria. Even if it was a tormented decision as I was going away from my family, I now can say that it was the journey of heart!

Mystic Umbria, green heart of Italy, letterally captivated me with its colours and marvels!

Nevertheless, when you have some fears inside of you, fears that limit you and don’t give you the courage to change situations and leave people which definitely are not in harmony with you you jeopardize to take decision following the stereotype and not yourself. When I started to find a job, I didn’t think how to fully exploit my creativity, but (once more) I was thinking how to serve people. And so I joined a cooperative of services and welfare programmes.

THE ELDERLY: A SCHOOL OF LIFE

 Has my life been easy? No, it has been a hard path, until now, because I suffered a lot, and do you know why? 
You suffer when you don’t follow your soul, you don’t love and don’t respect yourself! 
And do you know one thing? I’ve understood that during these last ten years of hard work and assistance to the elderly. The elderly represent a school of life, and when they tell you their stories you understand what is really important, extremely important: take your life in your hands, now, and shape it as you like! Do you have to leave everything? Your home, your certainties, uncomfortable situations that link you to people who remove your energy? Well, I did it. One day, I opened my eyes and I understood that if I wanted to build a better life for me I had to  fly on the wings of imagination and have faith!

IF YOU HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING

I want to share with you the most important thing I’ve ever learnt:

essentially you draw in your everyday life all that you feel inside, your emotions and your leading thoughts. Once, in the afternoon I was in a church and in the silence, I was trying to understand how could I solve some questions of my life. Out of the blue I clearly heard a message: 
"If you have knowledge, you have everything". 
To know ourselves and live coherently with all that our heart tells us to do is the key for living a happy and successful existence.   
Il Giardino sul Comò is the result of years of studying on myself, about who I am and why I’m here. During this path of self-knowing and interior consciousness I’ve been lucky to meet many masters and people.
I’ve been even in India and I wrote a short biography. Let myself expressing at its best has been a goal obtained thanks to hard work and Il Giardino sul Comò is my prize, the beginning living my life in any way I want. Il Giardino sul Comò is also a gift to you and I know you’ll appreciate it, especially if you agree with what is written below.

LET’S SAVE ‘FANTÀSIA’

Each time you look a blossom flower or a dusk with the sun falling among the olive hills, you can see the spontaneity of nature, which follows its natural development, the harmonious stream of life. As I told you, I’ve understood, thanks to direct experience, that we, the human being, often get stuck in mental schemes and fears that take us away from this harmonious stream, rejecting our free expression. For our mind it’s easier to think that we cannot change, that life is unfair and that we must suffer. Thinking in this way is a limit which can only cause a future of unsatisfaction. Instead, I believe that imagination helps us to go on, everyday! No one can take away your imagination and your power to imagine!!
Do you remember the film "NeverEnding Story"?  The main character, a young boy, must save Fantàsia, an imaginary world discovered in a magic book. There was just one way for saving Fantàsia, expressing desires: the more he expressed the more Fantàsia could reborn bloomy!

This is the mission of Il Giardino sul Comò:

ll Giardino sul Comò is a link between yourself and your imagination
and the more you dream the more you convey the desires of your heart:
if we’re together we can create a new world!

With Love Giusi