Introduction

Each of us lives in a specific historical moment and, whether we like it or not, we are inevitably inserted in a context that conditions us, makes us free and enslaved, shows us what good or bad, gives us or frightens us.

Our century is characterized by an enormous speed of progress essentially due to the evolution of technology and it often happens that this speed exceeds the natural human speed of predisposition to change.

Obviously many things have changed in art too; for example, it is enough to compare Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Duchamp's Urinal or Fontana's cuts; the question is inevitable: but what happened?

Towards the beginning of the 1900s, we moved from figurative art that reproduced characters, landscapes, still lifes, painted in an extraordinary way and that responded to very precise academic rules and techniques, to abstract painting that destroyed the object and that vice versa based on the inner nature and intimate sensations of the artist, often using supports and materials completely different from traditional canvases and colors.

As art has evolved, it has freed itself from the natural aspect of things, transforming itself into a pure manifestation of neutral forms, more and more abstract and colors that no longer correspond to reality, but that express emotions.

Personally I defined a pictorial thought - Abstract Empathy - born on the one hand from the pictorial experience developed over years of painting, on the other from the direct experience of everyday life.

More specifically, I have better reflected the importance of three aspects that I have defined - Positive Factors - in my view fundamental and key access for the continuous improvement of our way of life;

Balance, Simplicity and Harmony

Art must express the context in which we live, well, this way of painting wants to communicate the three aspects of positivity, factors that are absolutely current and necessary to better understand, face, live and act in the era in which we live.

In my works, therefore, I try to capture the observer's attention not so much to show a subject, but to make feel the deepest sensations that can arise when you can empathize with the innermost and most intimate conditions of the subject or of the thought highlighting the balance expressed by simple abstract figures and by means of the chromatic harmony expressed by the shapes themselves and the colors used.

There are other factors that obviously contribute to a state of well-being, but they are like saying, more on the surface, discounted and ephemeral, such as health, the economic ease that are to be considered as obvious.

Each of us could tell about experiences and moments of life lived for which I believe that we can only agree with the truthfulness of the three factors both for positive situations in which we have derived joy and serenity, and for negative situations where, vice versa, we found ourselves in circumstances of suffering.

If we had taken note and cataloged the countless cases that have happened to us in life, we could certainly have classified them into happy moments for which one or more of the three factors occurred, dramatic moments for which either they did not occur or occurred, partially verified or worse, diametrically opposite conditions have occurred.

If this is true, and I believe there are no elements to affirm the opposite, we must ensure that the three positivity factors become our goal for achieving a real lifestyle and as a general guide to approach what's this.

There are no situations that can diminish this intent or cases in which to think that this effort is not worth the effort, from the smallest to the largest each situation is an opportunity to apply the three factors.

From breakfast in the morning to the definition of a new law or for the purchase of a product or a large investment, the effort must be made, obviously proportionally to the extent of the matter under consideration.

Unjust, dishonest or ineffective situations require corrections to restore balance, chaotic, confused or extremely complex situations are destined to fail and require injections of simplicity and linearity, distorted and unpleasant situations confuse and disturb and must be corrected with a good dose of harmony.

The field of applicability of the three positivity factors is total; they range from the personal sphere, to the social sphere, to the scientific, political and economic field.

The complexity of all things in the private sphere, in relationships, events, organizations, interests, conveniences, ideologies, political, economic and social facts, often involves the complete loss of attention of what should be the primary "guiding principle" or the search for balance.

As we will see, for the research and application of the first factor - balance - a large contribution comes from the systemic approach, that is, from the ability to see in a broad and broad sense and to identify and reflect on the relationships that bind individual things ( variables).

For the identification of the other two factors - simplicity - harmony - the main inspiration comes from the art most focused on the most intimate and deepest side, giving us sensations that arise from its ability to act on the strings of our feelings without using any word, but only through the use of shapes and colors.

In other words, we should on the one hand acquire the ability to manage any situation with systemic logics rich in rationality and concreteness without therefore ever losing sight of reality and balance, on the other hand listening to internal emotions and sensations that direct us towards simplicity and harmony of things.

In this paper we will go into detail about these two tools:

• the search for the BALANCE factor, using SYSTEM THEORY as a tool

• the search for the SIMPLiCITY and HARMONY factors, using ART as a tool

 to then converge into a form of painting that I called " ABSTRACT EMPATHY" .

Acknowledgments.

A special thanks to my wife Giuliana, my inexhaustible reserve of daily happiness, who with her innate sense of beauty and harmony has always given me a rich exchange of ideas and sincere opinions. Thanks to Andrea, my son, who gave me frank opinions and bright, sharp looks of young eyes. Thanks to the teachers of the Accademia di Brera and to the colleagues of study and to the Faculty of Engineering for having provided me with a vision and a systemic approach to everything.