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Artist’s Note: I was born and still live on an island nicknamed the “Island of Wind.” The coasts of Sardinia in Italy are constantly battered by mistral storms that blow year-round, creating otherworldly landscapes. Trees that have spent centuries resisting the force of the wind have become symbols of nature’s struggle to survive. Many do not collapse, but instead bend as if dancing with the air current. This dance continues even after their death, transforming them. Their trunks become hollow and altered, transforming into true works of natural art. Even the rocks are eroded, forming stone animals and surfaces that seem to have been carved by human hands. Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926 for her novel “Canne al vento” (Reeds in the Wind), a work that often inspires my photography. Deledda compared reeds and trees bending in the wind to people fighting against their fate. My photos aim to capture the strength inherent in nature from which humans can draw inspiration.

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Viviana De Cecco is a writer, translator, and visual artist. She works as a content writer and book reviewer for Tint Journal and NewMyths. Her translations of twentieth-century poetry and short stories from Spanish, French and Italian have appeared in Azonal Translation, The Polyglot Magazine and Atèlier d’écriture. Her fiction and poetry have also appeared in Poets’ Choice, Aôthen Magazine, Seaside Gothic, Yuvoice.org, and others. As an artist, her visual art appeared in Mud Season Review, Acta Victoriana, Spellbinder Magazine, MayDay Magazine. Since 2013, she has published short stories, poems and novels of various genres. Her literary works and photographs can be found at: https://vivianadececco.altervista.org/