Exploring Identity, Fatphobia, and Femininity Through Maria Rosati’s Art

Maria Rosati is a printmaker and an artist. In this interview, she shares how her experiences, like growing up in an Italian-Canadian family and dealing with body image issues, have shaped her work. Maria also discusses using art, specifically printmaking, to explore themes like identity, fatphobia, and femininity. Maria also shares her creative process, how she handles challenges like creative blocks, and the meaningful pieces she’s created that resonate with others.

Maria Rosati is a printmaker focused on silkscreen and intaglio. Originally from Southern Ontario, she completed her BFA at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2023 and is beginning her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Alberta. In looking at what has influenced our perception of self and how we are shaped into the people we become, Rosati explores ideas of trace and lineage inherent within print as a medium, creating project-based, process-driven pieces. Rosati’s work draws inspiration from several personal experiences, including growing up in a border city, in an Italian-Canadian family, and being a plus-sized woman. Her work includes traditional prints, large-scale sequential series, and state changes, with the process of printing often functioning as performance. In her recent work, Rosati asks the question, ‘Who can I blame?’ for the feelings of shame and hatred held towards her fat body. Fatphobia is treated as an acceptable form of intolerance in society because fatness is viewed as something that has happened to a skinny body and as the result of poor choices and poor decisions. Using layering as evidence of labor and history and as a method of accumulation and weight, Rosati challenges the prominent discourse surrounding fat bodies through her prints by calling them out and asking ‘why?’ Her recent work continues to speak about fatphobia as well as her relationship to girlhood and the intersection of femininity and fatness.

1. What inspired you to become an artist?

Being an artist has always just made sense to me. I never had one big moment of inspiration or lightbulb go off telling me to be an artist… art was always just there for me. I was a creative kid, drawing and painting all the time and taking art classes once a week for most of my childhood. I went to a high school with a visual arts program, and when it came time to apply for university, I only really considered art colleges. It always just seemed like the path I was meant to be on. If you ask my dad, he would take all the credit! He was always passionate about the arts and fostered creativity within me from a young age. I’m so lucky to have the support of my parents and family, who encourage the little artist in me, allowing me to consider and pursue a professional career in the arts.

A lot of the concepts I work with bleed into other projects, and new explorations and experiments are born from things discovered when working on ‘finished’ pieces

Maria Rosati

2. Can you tell us about a particular piece of art that holds special meaning for you?

I completed a project titled ‘Weigh In’ in the last year of my undergraduate degree. Weigh-in consisted of 40 sequential screen prints accompanied by hand-bound artist books detailing the content of each layer. This project asked, ‘Who can I blame?” for the feelings I hold towards my body. With every layer and subsequent print, I was looking for an answer – hoping to point the finger at someone or something for making my fatness feel worthy of hatred. We have all heard these messages, associated ‘fat’ with ‘bad’, and questioned the worthiness of our bodies and the love we’ve been told they do not deserve. These layers include scenes from pop culture, hand-drawn images, and written text calling out specific and significant moments that have influenced my view of my body. When I exhibited this piece, I was blown away by the response. At the time of making it, it was the most vulnerable project I had ever taken on. I questioned its validity every step, feeling like I had made up the impact of the movie “Shallow Hal” or the feelings “Fat Amy” stirred up within me. I worked on Weigh In for months; until I exhibited it, I felt alone thinking these things. But on the opening night of my show, I saw my mother tear up… she felt these things, too. Countless people came up to me and told me their breath was taken away. Everyone of every size is connected to my project. That was a really big moment for me. Weigh In will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the basis of my applications to graduate school and is now the inspiration for my thesis research that I will be beginning this fall at the University of Alberta. Weigh In has opened so many doors for me and is where I feel I truly found my voice as an artist

3. What role does experimentation play in your art practice?

With printmaking, the experimentation never really stops! There’s always a problem to solve or a new method to try, and many happy moments unexpectedly reveal themselves throughout the printing process. Through these trials, mistakes, and welcomed discoveries, a lot of my aesthetic inspiration comes from. For example, I use a lot of digital processes, like four color separations, in my screen prints. I misregistered a layer (meaning it wasn’t perfectly lined up) on a print of me in a bikini when I was a kid, but it made the image look hazy in a way that benefited the piece overall. I kept playing with making mistakes on that print, blowing out a layer so the dots were no longer crisp, switching the order of the CMYK layers, adding a border onto each layer to emphasize the process, and more! I had about 20 variations of the same 4×6 print when I was done. I continued trying various methods of printing that same image expanding outside of silkscreen. That’s how I came to try four color separations with photo-intaglio, eventually leading to my series, “Bikini Body.”

4. How do you know when a piece of art is finished?

I usually start with a clear idea of how a project will go. My work is very project-based and process-driven, and I often write proposals for myself on the print and how I will get it there. I rarely make the piece exactly as I laid it out, but it gives me a framework to see if the print is turning out how I envisioned and meeting the expectations or goals I had set for it. With printmaking, especially how I work with print, I know what product I will have when I’m finished, and it’s very easy to see when the print itself is done. But even when I complete a project, like ‘Bikini Body’ or ‘Weigh In,’ I don’t think I’m ever truly finished with it. Many concepts I work with bleed into other projects, and new explorations and experiments are born from things discovered when working on ‘finished’ pieces. So, even when I know a print is done, once I’ve editioned, signed it, and tucked it away in my drawer, I’m never truly finished with the ideas the piece is made of. With each piece I’ve worked on, I’ve been pulling one long thread to unravel something; I’m just not sure what that is yet.

5. How do you handle creative blocks or periods of low inspiration?

I find power through is the best thing to do in a creative block. I include a lot of research in my practice, and when there’s a lull in inspiration, I start by hitting the books! I’m reading Aubrey Gordon’s book, “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat.” I turn back to research to get me fired up, validate my thoughts, and remind myself that these experiences I hold as a fat woman are not isolated to me. Another approach I’ll take is to let myself make something for fun. Heavy topics like fatphobia, grief, and girlhood, concepts I often work with, can become all-consuming. It’s hard to pour your most vulnerable self into every project continuously. When I find that happening, I step back and let myself make for the sake of making. Usually, this looks like a silly screenprint, something just for fun and for me. What ends up happening is the act of printing reminds me why I love it, and I get right back into the swing of things. Sometimes, all it takes for me to get started again is to remember why I began in the first place.

Sometimes, all it takes for me to get started again is to remember why I began in the first place.

Maria Rosati

Maria Rosati’s art goes beyond aesthetics, tapping into deep conversations about identity, body image, and societal standards. Her exploration of printmaking as a medium becomes a platform for self-reflection and challenging widely accepted views. Through her work, Maria tells her own story and creates a space for others to connect and reflect on their own experiences. To learn more about Maria Rosati, click on the links below.