"I am inspired by life. By subtle energies, synchronous meetings and the movement of the stars.
I see artistic creation as a way to enter into contact with others, stay curious and grow in empathy."

Enrica Mannari is an illustrator, emotional educator and author of books on transformation and change.

Gifted with an innate aesthetic flair, which has developed over the years through the tools that characterise her expressiveness - such as paper and card, colours, marker pens, pencils and rubbers - finally resulting in the well-rounded awareness of a mature artist.
Enrica lives in Tuscany, by the sea. And on the Moon.

"... because being on the Moon means looking at things from above. From a different perspective.

It means being in light, but also in darkness. It means dreaming. Presence, but also absence.

It means feeling you are from another planet. It means needing silence and solitude, but also large spaces. It means believing in magic. In parallel dimensions. In the enormity of the universe."

Her first foray into publishing began with collaborations on a few books: Enrica illustrated some books for various publishers, including Sfashion (Morellini Editore), Life is learnt (De Agostini), The cynic's guide to cellulite (Mondadori), With head held high (De Agostini), I have nothing to wear (Mondadori), A song for you and The family with three surnames (De Agostini), Free of taboos (Fabbri Editori).

Moving with growing expressive power, through illustrations and thoughts, Enrica's first solo book arrived, which aims to rediscover emotions and their endless forms, nuances and dimensions: Someone has the heart... (De Agostini, 2019).

An illustrated manual for happiness (De Agostini, 2020), her second book, describes an ideal path, made up of small and large steps, actions to carry out to reach happiness. A book to absorb, word by word, image by image: because it is not just for reading and consulting, but also for colouring, underlining, carrying around with you like a handbook.

Become your own fortune (Fabbri Editori) is from 2021. 365 mantras, its subtitle, explains the goal of the manual: 365 thoughts, each accompanied by a meaningful illustration, with the aim of helping to develop your self-awareness, inspiring and motivating.

Illuminating daily thoughts that can help and support every one of us in our path towards more awareness. Because learning to know ourselves and love ourselves is the greatest success any person can have, the greatest self-made fortune.

There is no fixed order to read in, or any chronological sequence, it is simply a mixed selection of ideas. 365 ways to look at life from a different perspective: that of awareness. The pages offer no answers, but they do suggest the right questions to reflect on. Because fortune is not chance success, but a repeated decision to choose wisdom.

"I believe that awareness is the key to happiness. Also unhappiness, maybe. But in any case, it is the key to a reasoned, balanced view of what we are and what life is. Through awareness, we can undergo great personal and collective revolutions. I would like this book to become a sort of 'security blanket' for all of you. To keep on your bedside table, to give as a gift, to highlight, to write and draw in. An object to use, and to act through. I wish you a good journey inside yourselves, and hope that I am a worthy companion."

A journey that leads us, or returns us, to a safe, welcoming place where we can live in a condition of comfort and balance. It is from that place where we can face the world with restored strength and conviction, ready to meet others in a relationship of pure sociability and sharing, a stimulus for new skills and continuous creativity.

Enrica calls that safe place Residenza Mannara.

"Residenza Mannara is a place I have been creating in my mind for years. Now it is reality. It exists in a metaphorical sense, but also in a practical, physical, tangible sense. A house with a large garden where we can share experiences, time and creativity. But it is, and will also be an online space, where we can discuss and talk. Building this place takes time and dedication. 
Be patient: there will be more news coming soon."

The idea of a journey towards awareness, the value of sharing and sociability as a tool for self-awareness and acceptance, took on a new, more widespread expressive form in 2022, when Enrica launched MotivArte - art takes to the streets, an initiative that involves putting up posters in city streets with messages of inspiration, which perfectly combine the artistic with the motivational.

The whole project was described as a "Gentle revolution", and carried out in various Italian cities.
Piombino was the first. The mayor took the opportunity to being positivity and liberation to the city streets, taking advantage of the spaces that the pandemic had left empty: over two-hundred posters up in the streets, accompanied by a social media campaign that aimed to involve citizens in suggesting new motivational phrases to display during the next initiative. The example of Piombino was quickly followed by towns near Florence, then in Val Trebbia, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy.

"Communication is my daily bread. Illustrated and written messages are an excellent way to instill new thoughts, new views, new perspectives and questions in people's minds. Revolutions
and changes always begin this way: a simple thought that was not there before. Now it is."