A COCKTAIL OF ARTISTIC FORMS Growing up both in the Old Continent and America, I think I absorbed different cultural elements. My family has always been involved in almost any aspects of the arts (from cinema to visual arts to writing to theater and music). If I could describe myself, I'd say I'm a cocktail of artistic forms.

BACKGROUND I went to an art school and graduated as a graphic designer and art teacher. I then dived into glass painting while training as an opera singer. So I'd be doing multiple things at the same time.Singing, for example, would allow me to free my voice and let out my emotions through sounds while painting on glasses would liberate my "visual voice" so to speak. Then came modeling: I lived in Milan for a time and started to work in the industry. Then I moved to New York where I wanted to keep training as an opera singer but decided to enroll in the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute (to be a better opera performer you need to be a better actor).

SOLITARY SWAMP Show business can resemble a solitary swamp. Its outside glitters can trick you into thinking that it's all fun and success, but we know it is not. It's hard work, luck and connections. So I say it's one of the most difficult businesses to be part of and to be successful at. As a consequence, I consider fame as a gift, partly due to your own abilities and partly due to the circumstances given to you. So God plays an important role in the picture and the reason why some people are more successful than others that are unknown to us.

NOT A BIG FAN I'm not a big fan of the modeling world, to be honest with you. It is great to see yourself on a magazine cover, but I need more substance than that. Nonetheless, I'm grateful that I can work and make money with it (as I do with other things). I'm actually working behind the camera as well and find it much more interesting  

 FUNNY MOMENT  And a funny backstage moment occurred during a fitness photo shoot in Malibu: I had to walk back to the truck on a very busy Pacific Coast Highway BUTT NAKED! That was because my underwear got ripped against a rock and swam away into the ocean. Now you should have heard the horns on the road! I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth. Ha, ha, ha. 

FINAL THOUGHTS  I'd like to tell connex 247 readers to always cultivate and grow their passions with love and care the same way you would with a child. True success is felt within ourselves without trying to find any approval from without.

CACTUS NEEDLES! When, at the age of four, I sat on a cactus and filled my buttocks with needles, which took hours for my mom to take away. Ha, ha, ha! Now THAT is unforgettable.