Sustainable Furniture Inspired By Art With HartiSWIM

HartiSWIM specialises in wearable art and furniture inspired by hand-painted prints created by the iconic artist Harti.

Harti Luxe Velvet 'meaning' Armchairs (Pair)
About Harti

Harti is redefining sustainable luxury with its unique fusion of art and interior design, offering a stunning range of home furniture pieces that are both functional and artistic. Each item in the collection is thoughtfully crafted with sustainability in mind, featuring bold, statement designs that transform living spaces into curated art experiences. From intricately designed tables to striking chairs, Harti’s furniture combines aesthetics, creativity, and environmental responsibility.

In addition to their home collection, Harti has expanded into the world of fashion with new luxury sustainable fashion house HartiSWIM, created by proud Scottish entrepreneur Tessa Hartman and her daughter, global music star Talia Storm. HartiSWIM is making waves in the global swimwear and resort wear industries, specialising in wearable art inspired by hand-painted prints designed by Tessa’s husband, the iconic artist Harti.

HartiSWIM’s new collection features stunning women’s and men’s swimwear and resort designs, all crafted from sustainable materials like recycled plastic bottles. The brand recently headlined the Ibiza Fashion Festival, showcasing their luxury sustainable swimwear on a global stage.

By connecting the worlds of art, music, and sustainable fashion, HartiSWIM is more than just a swimwear brand—it’s a movement towards eco-conscious luxury.

HartiSWIM Collective Subconscious Table Cloth
HartiSWIM Collective Subconscious Table Cloth.
Image courtesy of Harti
Collective Subconscious 170x140cm artwork by Harti
Collective Subconscious 170x140cm artwork by Harti
Image courtesy of Harti

Interview with Harti, the Artist Behind The Iconic Artwork Found on HartiSWIM’s Designs

Where are you located? Is that where you’re from?
I am painting out of Jersey in The British Isles. Not originally. I was born in Germany, but my parents relocated to northern Italy when I was very young. So my first language is Italian as was all my schooling. My wife says I behave as an Italian. Whatever
that means.
 
Did you study art, are you self-taught or a mixture of both?
My school art teacher wanted me to go to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, but my parents had other ideas, so my academic studies stopped in High -School years.
 
But me being me, I never gave up my love for visual art. So during my whole life, from my university years, through life as a brilliant father and even more brilliant husband to my Covid year, I always doodled, drew sketches and so on.
 
My applied love for the visual arts developed into a love for art history, Freud will be giggling somewhere. Textbook sublimation—and it helped on all levels. I never gave up on the young me that was about to go to Brera Academy. I internalised it, and I took it everywhere I went, Brera with me. I think that I was lucky enough to have had an incredible art teacher who gave me a foundation upon which I could build my art.
Harti Luxe Velvet 'Meaning' Armchair
Harti Luxe Velvet 'Meaning' Armchair.
Image courtesy of Harti
Collective Subconscious Deckchair by Harti
Collective Subconscious Deckchair by Harti.
Image courtesy of Harti.
Collective Subconscious Deckchair and Kids Deckchair by Harti
Collective Subconscious Deckchair and Kids Deckchair by Harti.
Image courtesy of Harti
Collective Subconscious Deckchair, Kids Deckchair and Swimwear by Harti
Wearable Art Satin Sarong with the Hope artwork print by Hardi
Image courtesy of Harti
What mediums do you work with for your initial designs?
For initial designs I use big black uni pen markers. I am not a fan to fix or re-draw at this crucial stage. What I draw, stays. Don’t get me wrong, we make all mistakes wether it is proportions of characters, imbalances in compositions and so on, but per se everything should stay alla prima. I believe in the spontaneity of the subconscious processes, it is as art is doing the art, and my body is just a tool. In saying that, my art process always starts with a question. An existential question.
 
Philosophy is part of my DNA. So after many lucubrations, I have a good idea about the outlines, and respectively how my canvas should look like. It is almost an obsessive mental picture that will torment and galvanise me until the painting is ready.
For my next stage, my go to are acrylics. They dry fast, are vibrant and are conducive to my fast workflow.
 
What size are your works? For example, large-scale walls, tiny miniatures.
I love big canvases. Of course big is relative. I am talking 2 meters by 1,5 meters. It is a perfect size, not too small for a microscope, and not too big to use scaffolding. Everything is still in reach of my bodily statue. I don’t need to over-stretch my arms and I don’t need not to squeeze my eyes.
 
But big enough to let my wrist and arm draw the arcs with ease and frivolity. I have always been a fan of big paintings. As you are well aware a painting will change character the further you will move away from it. So, distance is a fundamental trait of every painting. How far away can I go from a painting, before I stop seeing it. Now this is highly subjective, not only from a biological view point but from a psychological as well. This is another freudian moment, but let’s leave it like that.
 
Can you tell us about your creative process? How does an idea evolve from concept to completion in your work?
Everything starts with a question. An existential one. A question that will torture, torment and bring me alive. My starting point is always philosophy. A philosophy with its metaphysical questions, with its ethical straitjackets, with its epistemological
conundrums and so on.
 
While my classmates in high school were reading Flaubert I was engrossed in Camus, Kierkegaard, Schelling, Feuerbach and Nietzsche. I’m not sure if tis was a good thing or not. But this was me. So I built an impressive arsenal of thinkers who would
follow me throughout my life.
 
So once the question is in the ether, the doubting and processing starts. Is there a God? Should one re-evaluate all moral principles? Or even the status quo? Has technology become the new God? Is religion just a hoax? Religion as a soother, as an ancient form of therapy? What can we know? Has the absurdity of our world become the new normal?
 

Well, once the question has been set in stone, my white nights will bring tribulations, headaches and dehydration, to say the least. I start seeing Caravaggio’s, Tintoretto’s, details of a Velasquez, a laughing page boy from Giorgione or a woman draped in a beautiful coat with a mink collar from Parmigianino, maybe a voluptuous nude by Rubens before stopping at Titian’s portrait of Pope Paul III. 

Images are flying through my brain windings—I will have a monochromatic outline of my work in progress. Now that said, I start going into detailing and colouring. I am still old school and I work with under layers, and all sorts of layers of the Tenebrist era. Back to Caravaggio, de Ribeira and a bit of the Flemish Baroque. 

Once I dealt with the vintage aspect of my art, I started introducing the vibrancy of pop art, the hyper fauve. One cannot miss my love for women, their curves, and their eroticising shapes, gifted to us mortals by the Greek Gods. A life without a woman would be barren, right? History without women would have been one-dimensional, right? Even in religion, a paradise without Eve is unthinkable, right? In art history, the beauty of art has been shining through the representation of female characters, whether as Madonna’s, Nuns or Courtesans.

Botticelli would agree. The crux of the matter is that I could get on and on because it is impossible to complete a work. To me, it is always in progress. The reason is simple. A work of art is, at one point, taking on a life of its own, and by doing so one sees a re-birth of the work of art itself or as Nietzsche would call it; the eternal recurrence.

 
How does a sense of place influence your work?
If I close my eyes, and if I see round shapes in front of me, I can positively say that the place where I am is harmonious.
 
It is a wonderful technique. I can be sitting in Bryant Park, Manhattan, surrounded by a cacophony of noises, and yet the place is harmonious. I can be sitting on a boat, all by myself, in the middle of the sea, surrounded by silence, and yet I could feel
out of kilter.
 
So, to answer your question, places are very important to trigger ideas, and vivid images that will be printed on my retina, and archived somewhere in my cortex. Sometimes, noise is great, sometimes it is not. Sometimes light is great, sometimes it is not.
 
I love the interplay between places and mood. Is it us that defines places, or is it places that define us? Food for thought.
 
Do you have any rituals or routines that help you get into a creative mindset?
I am allergic to rituals. Rituals are one step closer to boredom or ennui. The only kickstart that I need is black coffee, from then onwards everything is in flux. Heraclitus is laughing somewhere.
 
Do you have a studio space?
During Covid, I started painting in my recording studio. After Covid, I created music in my art studio. The great Quincey Jones once said that he could hear notes in colour. I agree with him. So, my recording studio has been the perfect place for the re-birth of my visual art.
 
Chaos ensued. Blank Canvasses made their way into the recording area in between Gobo’s and mic stands, and acrylic colour tubs started to adorn the morphology of the floor, not to mention the myriad of brushes that were scattered almost everywhere.
 
Well, all that said, I felt happy and in harmony with all the known galaxies. I can only recommend my measured approach towards the perfect studio space.
Hope artwork by Harti
Hope artwork by Harti.
Image courtesy of Harti
Wearable Art Satin Sarong with the Hope artwork print by Hardi
Wearable Art Satin Sarong with the Hope artwork print by Hardi
Image courtesy of Harti
Meaning artwork by Hardi
Meaning artwork by Hardi.
Image courtesy of Harti
Harti Luxe Velvet 'Meaning' Armchair, back view
Harti Luxe Velvet 'Meaning' Armchair, back view.
Image courtesy of Harti
Collective Subconscious 170x140cm artwork by Harti
Collective Subconscious 170x140cm artwork by Harti
Image courtesy of Harti
Collective Subconscious One Piece & Collective Subconscious Mini Skirt by Harti
Collective Subconscious One Piece & Collective Subconscious Mini Skirt by Harti.
Image courtesy of Harti

“We believe in a salutary re-birth of our broken planet and we're dedicated to creating an innovative brand that uses our collections and art to bring awareness to climate-change. 1 swimsuit = 13.1 plastic bottles (certified bottle count from repreve). At our heart, HartiSwim is a new generation eco-luxe label designing swimwear & lifestyle products that are made to be loved forever”

Tessa Hartmann CEO HartiSWIM founder

What advice do you have for other artists who are interested in partnering with companies to produce wearable art and furniture items?
Believe in your art. And never be afraid to embrace new mediums. Creativity knows no bounds.
 
How do you go from artwork to finished fashion/interior products?
This is where my incredibly talented wife comes into play. Her organisational talents are legendary.
 
How does sustainability influence your work?
It is paramount. We live on the only life sustainable planet in this universe. There is no plan B. Plan A got to work. It falls back to us, ‘us’ the individualism ‘us’ the people that can make a difference. The ‘us’ that as thinking beings should understand what is happening to our planet.
 
Without life there won’t be an ‘us’.
 
Anything else you would like to add
I need a drink. Goodnight.
 
Meaning Bikini Set by Harti
Meaning Bikini Set by Harti.
Image courtesy of Harti
Harti logo in orange

Website: hartiswim.com
Founders: Tessa Hartman &  
Instagram: @hartiswim
Location: UK