M-Mina

A silly self-portrait I painted in my first year at the art academy in Milan, when I was 19 and rocking my pyjamas in the studio. I had always seen the “great masters” painting themselves in these glorified, exaggerated almost untouchable ways—but I wanted the opposite.

M-Mina is me, unfiltered: double chin, thick eyebrows, acne, dark spots…the whole deal. No idealisation, no flattering, just a realistic version of myself.