on the process of making art: inspiration

in the last weeks i have been pretty much watching the world in the perspective of my bed. this last edition of the flu is not fun. a deceptive illness that makes you fell miserable for a few days, then when you think everything will be okay, you are thrown in bed again. just in time for the group show "Tarts, Trollops, and Tramps" to which i had planned some cool pieces with a cool concept i had developed just for the show, but that i was just too miserable to bring to physical form. more about it later.

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but what i really wanted to talk today is about the creative process. i have been spawned some new pencil pieces lately (all in progress for now) and people have been asking about my process, materials, and so on. in fact that's a question i hear quite often. so i decided to write about it. starting with the genesis of the process. aka the inspiration.

 

"Recollection", work in progress

when i think inspiration i immediately think something that is dear to my heart and that touches me. something that is like oxygen, that fills your lungs, and makes you move.

the Free Dictionary defines:

in·spire  (n-spr)

v. in·spired, in·spir·ing, in·spires

v.tr.

1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.

2. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion: hymns that inspire the congregation; an artist who was inspired by Impressionism.

3.

a. To stimulate to action; motivate: a sales force that was inspired by the prospect of a bonus.

b. To affect or touch: The falling leaves inspired her with sadness.

4. To draw forth; elicit or arouse: a teacher who inspired admiration and respect.

5. To be the cause or source of; bring about: an invention that inspired many imitations.

6. To draw in (air) by inhaling.

7. Archaic

a. To breathe on.

b. To breathe life into.

v.intr.

1. To stimulate energies, ideals, or reverence: a leader who inspires by example.

2. To inhale.

what makes you feel all of these things?

everybody have stories no matter whether they lived traveling the world in a boat, or in a distant farm in a country town. everybody have those things that fill them with life. or death. they say that writers should write about things they know well. i think that also applies to artists... draw your life... dance your life... sing your life. even if all you want is to raise questions. it is all a big mystery after all. but do it with passion. find your passion.

when i was a child, i spent most of my time in my inner world. the people and places i created, the dreams of other dreamers, were way more interesting that the "real" world around me. i was always more comfortable with the things i could not see with my physical eyes. religious experiences (ah, Brazil). myths, fairytales, mysteries, magic. the supernatural, and the tools to access it. religion. God and the Devil, saints and demons, spirits and devas. my inspiration, my oxygen, comes from the invisible. from the place where things are first shaped to manifest in this world (many times just to be corrupted by men.) I grew up embracing the invisible and it spilled in the stories i wrote and the art i created. 

Another progress for a commission, still untitled.

when you talk about what you love and understand (or desire to understand), you will create a bridge. you will find your interlocutors and the great dialogue called art will manifest.

She, who walks among the dead

Mixed media on panel

16" x 20"

2012

"Inner Self-Portrait" group show, 2012 

Price TBA

sailing through the depths of a blue hope

she moves across vague oceans

in nudity, darkness, divinity,

communing with demons and serpents,

sleeping with angels and devas,

grabbing words brought from the invisible.

heart is the same that sees through the mists,

guiding bare steps through the inner abyss.

she is Persephone in the Underworld, dying and being reborn a thousand times,

bringing the hope of a million Springs and the interlude of Winters.

fingers that touched the dead, may they now awake the living.

from loneliness, may them bring out the light of a gentle alchemy

may flowers arise from broken dreams

may birds sing above the solitude of sins

may she, once more, reinvent herself from her own mortality.

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Navegando através das profundezas de uma esperanca azul

ela se move través de vagos oceanos

em nudez, escuridão, divindade,

em comunhão com demônios e serpentes,

dormingdo com anjos e devas,

agarrando palavras trazidas do invisível.

o coração é o mesmo que enxerga através das brumas

guiando passos nus através do abismo interior.

ela é Persephone no mundo subterrâneo,

morrendo e renascendo mil vezes,

trazendo a esperança das Primaveras e o interlúdio dos Invernos.

dedos que tocam os mortos, possam agora acordar os vivos.

da solidão, possam eles trazer a luz de uma alquimia branda

possam flores surgir de sonhos despedaçados

possam pássaros cantar acima da solidão dos pecados

possa ela, uma vez mais, se reinventar de sua própria mortalidade.

caminho em solidao atraves de oceanos vagos

em nudez, olhos vendadados, tocando o vento,

agarrando palavras trazidas de lugar nenhum.

apenas o coração, enxergando atraves da bruma, guia-me os passos nus.

sou Persephone no Hades, morrendo e renascendo mil vezes,

trazendo em si a esperança de milhoes de primaveras e o descansar de invernos.

dedos que tocaram os mortos, que agora acordem os vivos

que façam renascer das cinzas da incerteza a luz de uma alquimia branda

que flores brotem dos sonhos despedacados

que passaros cantem sobre a solidao da neblina

que eu possa, mais uma vez, metamorfosear-me sobre as cinzas de mim.

Serpentarium

Pencil and acrylics on panel 

12" x 12" 

2012 

For purchase, please contact:
 Tasty Gallery - Seattle

Sheltering Ghosts

Mixed media on panel

18" x 24"

2011

$800 USD

Original Available

Salome

Acrylics and pencil on canvas

6 x 18 in

$300

Dryad

Acrylics and pencil on canvas

6 x 18 in

$300

hello again, fashion world

i am getting ready to start a project on art direction for a fashion company. i am very excited with this new possibility and, of course, getting very inspired to come into the world of commercial illustration. few people know, but i have a background in fashion, and although i have my reservations and a political posture toward the fashion world, i am often fascinated by the creativity and beauty of fashion photography and illustration.





that's being a lot of fun, not mentioning that it is  lovely to exercise my Aubrey Beardsley influences...

La Sirena

Watercolor and pencil on paper,
11 x 9
2009

Model: Iara Pires

$120

Tranquility

Watercolor and pencil on paper,
9 x 12
2009

$120