How I Met The Birds

It is an amazing story how I came to paint the birds:

In one of those delicious summer in Brazil I went to a trip to a paradise town called Prado (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvktYZxDvA&feature=related) in the state of Bahia.( http://www.pradobahiabrasil.com.br/praias.html) There I met a strange artist that was living in one of the most amazing beaches in the world, in a exquisite round house (designed by himself) decorated with glasses and mirrors with surreal effects that allowed you to see the ocean on the front porch and the woods on the back yard in the same time. Did not matter where you were in the house you could see everything, everywhere; even the sunrise and sunset on both places. Besides living in that stunning place that man only painted birds. I tried to understand that bizarre creature and painted one bird just to have a taste of it, I had the need to check if I could see something else beyond a picture of a silly bird that a strange man dedicated his life to. Then… I never could stop doing it anymore…

Wondering About Courage

.This post is about me fooling around the thought of courage.

I got emotional every time a child gives me a drawing. And I feel exactly like a kid when I show my art work to anybody. I discovered very early that I had courage to make art,

I noticed that I had to have courage so many times to create art, it is not ease to expose your heart constantly like that...

...and I had some pieces like "The Trojan Horse" , it was left to the ostracism for long time.

http://bit.ly/7GGoGf

The truth of the matter is that an artist reveals his/her soul in every picture.You have to prepare yourself for the consequences of being revealed, then you have to look at people in their eyes because they will see you, they will see your edge.

Be an artist is like this: You paint, and then you prepare to fight.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Vincent Van Gogh

All artist are naive

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent Van Gogh



All art requires courage. (Anne Tucker)

COURAGE, COURAGE,.......

...........................................

Courage is a kind of salvation. (Plato)


Courage is the mental and moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courage

Courage, also known as bravery, will, intrepidity, and loyalty, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. "Physical courage" is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, Death, or threat of death, while "moral courage" is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/08/what-is-courage.php

http://su.pr/1dQrv

• courage is "grace under pressure". Ernest Hemingway

• Leap, and the net will appear. (John Burroughs)

• A man full of courage is also full of faith. (Cicero)

• I love the courage and freedom that comes with being a crazy old lady... no holds, no barriers, no fear. (Kay Cox)

• You learn courage by couraging. (Mary Daly)

• If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts. (Robert Frost)

• Dare to be naive. (Buckminster Fuller)

• What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? (Vincent van Gogh)

• Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. (Anais Nin)

• All art requires courage. (Anne Tucker)

• Dare to be irrational! - keep free from formulas, open to any fresh impulse, fluid. (Edward Weston)

• A man shows reckless courage in entering into the abyss of himself. (William Butler Yeats)

The Artist Portrait

This picture was taken by the fabulous photographer David Spencer (www.davidspencerphoto.com) in his studio in Rockland Ma; we were in the old Codman Building where the Plain St famous group of artists were painting at the time. (www.4thfloorartists.org ) That was the fist time I had to pose and I was quite shy.
I suggested loud music to take my attention away from the machine eyes in front of me, and the fact that David was examining me like that was almost embarrassing. For me this cute image is showing that I was trying to hid myself the whole time, or that I was clouded with my gender worries about appearances, or that I am really that naïve and mysterious woman that his lenses discovered .
It is intriguing the effect that this photography has on people. The Brazilians applaud it, the Americans doesn’t know what to say, and a men from India urged me to take the photo from the web right way. One of my student’s mothers rebuked her for looking at naked people when she was checking my website; a couple of people saw sadness and what my husband said I cannot write in here. Some times I look at the figure trying to find a reason to ostracize it, but them I see the naïve again and I let it go. My honesty is knocking at the door again to lead me to the main point of the discussion: ….then I don’t want to think about it and I just stick with the reflection of innocence David so well portrayed .

An artist, just an artist. It is simple like that.

OK, all right, I will blog. I will write about the artist life. Of course lots of my own life will be included, after all what am I if not an artist? I realized it when I was still very young and I noticed that everybody had noticed that I was “different”. Took me forever to understand that it was Ok to think and talk and look not in the same way as everybody else’s. I have to confess here if I want to be loyal to my memory, that some of my friends called me “doidinha”, it was an affectionate way to say crazy in Portuguese. In that time, because I did not had understood who I was and because I was so young and naïve, that hurt me a lot. But then life got very confused when I started to dream about becoming a successful business woman. I tried so hard and waisted so much time and money till I found out that: the primarily reason for my failures was the fact that I was a right brainier, and had not worked on this aspect of my life at all. Nobody ever spoke to me about that, the schools I studied never explored that, all that society knows about it is the result of the recent researches. So, I new it inside me and I developed naturally what I was in the deep of my core.

Of course I have to state that my adjustment to family and society was painful.

Ok, how can a person functions being?

1 - fantasy-oriented

2 - holistic

3- random

4 - subjective

“On the other hand, right-brain students are the dreamers. They can be very intelligent and very deep thinkers—so much so that they can get lost in their own little worlds. They make great students of the social sciences and the arts. They are more spontaneous than the cautious left-brainers, and they are likely to follow their own gut feelings.”

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/learningstyles/a/leftrightbrain.htm

In all my life I remember creating those spectacular and well articulated “little worlds” and living comfortably in them. Reading this that quickly looks simple and comfy, but it gets very complicated once the dynamic of life carries you in. Then you understand what crazy is and you humbled yourself to the maximum:

That’s my bio:

My work is the fruit of who I am. Does not matter if I like it or not, I am an artist.

It comes from an intrinsic need to "create" something. I create an image and call
that the essence of my soul and allege that it is just enough to explain everything else in my whole life. Now at this stage of my existence, I am far away from the time
when these things may caused me embarrassment.

What?

An artist?

What do you mean by that?

I mean an aritist, just an artist

It is simple like that.