DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF THE ORIGINS COLLECTION
Hello visitor, how are things over there?
Glad you were interested in knowing how the development of the Collection Origins project is going.
I know there is a lot of text, but at the end of this reading you will understand many things about the works.
I swear I tried to keep it as lean as possible and with less technical language.
So let's go there?
At first I want to make clear the difference between Creation and Development. We use the term create to designate creative products. However, this is a big mistake and I explain why.
Creativity is just a small part of the whole process. When I paint, in fact, I'm creating. But before painting, I do a lot of research, I look for visual and literary references, sketch, select, define patterns, discard and, in some cases, even give up. This is called a method. And, this process is more logical than creative.
When I talk about development, I encompass the entire process, including creation. It's obvious that creativity is what gives it all the charm. However, the project alone would be unfeasible.
If you read about me on the page The Artist , saw that I am still quite influenced by the artists Jean Michael Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo and Tarsila do Amaral.
Before explaining the influence of each one on the works, I will first show the 5 pillars of the project:
1 - Method
Here I define practically everything: on what medium I will paint, painting size, what tools or resources I will use, whether I will apply an effect or not, the color palette, the shapes, in other words, how the production and reproduction will be.
2 - Cultural
I know that breaking down some cultural barriers is not an easy task, even more so for an artist in the beginning of his career like me.
The purpose of this pillar is to show Brazilians that we do have a genuine culture that is beautiful, colorful and full of life. We must also preserve and value it. And I don't say this because "it sounds good to the ears". It's a question of identity. To recognize itself in a society, today dominated by advertising, the media and a small and inhumane rich and powerful class that owns it all.
As an example, think that we import European behaviors like wearing a suit with a jacket, tie and drinking whiskey. However, we live in a "practically tropical" country, which is 40 degrees Celsius. I'm not against the consumption of these products, I know we're in a globalized world. But the problem lies in NOT KNOWING the reason why it is consumed. This is because advertising has already convinced you of what is good for you. It's a poorly conscious and unreasonable consumption. The same is true for most of the products we consume. This is consumer culture.
And speaking of consumption, art can and should be consumed by everyone. Because art sensitizes, informs, entertains, inquires, makes us reflect, among many other things necessary for us to become better individuals and, consequently, to evolve as a society. And this is the second cultural barrier I intend to break.
Today we see in the news that “so and so” bought a work of art valued in millions and lent it to a museum to put it on display. This is good because it makes everyone have access to works.
However, what I intend to do is to enable ordinary people, like you and me, to live the experience of acquiring a work of art, original, signed, with a certificate of authenticity and with everything that a work of art should have.
Also, I have to say that there is a big difference between a decorative painting and a work of art, so:
Therefore, I intend to offer you: paintings that carry a message to your homes.
3 - Policy
Before I even started the process of becoming an independent artist, I was always interested in politics. I understand that you may be unhappy with Brazil's policy. But politics isn't that. When you go out with a group of people and decide on a place to socialize, you are doing politics, that is, in a consensus deciding what is best for everyone. Anyway, politics is the only way to improve the lives of all of us.
Therefore, I thought it would be fair and necessary for the project to meet this criterion, since the injustices suffered by these people bother me so much, how about making me available to try to help with what I can?
Well, in partnership with Mídia India, I managed to get my first transfer campaign with the sale of my work. Do you know how it worked? Indigenous peoples from 170 ethnic groups went to Brasília in the FIGHT FOR LIFE against PL490 (you can check it HERE ) which aimed to practically remove the indigenous people from their lands for economic exploitation. It is an unjust, violent and, above all, unconstitutional bill. The project was so absurd that as there was no legal argument for it to be voted on, they invented one: the indigenous people had to have some record that they were in those lands before the year 1988.
However, to go to Brasília the indigenous would have costs. And in the first campaign, on a weekend, practically at the last minute, I managed to transfer R$ 1,200.00 (one thousand two hundred reais) as part of the sale of the work URUCUM.
It's not much, I know. But this has already shown me that it is possible. So, politics will always be part of my projects so that I can collaborate more and more. And, this is not charity, nor solidarity, this is POLITICS.
4 - Language
It is possible to be critical with a joke, with cartoons, with chronicles, poems and even through painting. So, when imagining the pain of indigenous peoples, even not being in their skin, and knowing that there are hundreds of years of injustice, discrimination, marginalization, violence and abandonment, my first paintings brought a direct criticism, I tried, therefore, to show the Indians being swallowed up by the city.
But I changed my strategy to represent them by analyzing the culture, the food, the clothes, the props, the tools, the instruments, the rituals, the music, the philosophy of life, their struggles, realizing how great they are. Furthermore, in the midst of so much diversity, they bravely resist.
So, I decided to put all this beauty in my paintings because I understood that this really represents them. When painting them, I use bright and cheerful colors, simple shapes and completely filled out, very manual lines, putting all my humanity, respect and admiration for them there.
5 - Artist's identity
This pillar is actually the tip of the iceberg since it is here that I show all my essence, my look and features as an artist.
It's my signature, a little “clumsy”, but that carries everything I've experienced. In addition, I make a constant application of what I wrote above, creating a visual pattern and making my work recognized in any place/environment.
Do you know why my works have this "mysterious air"?
It's just that when I create I don't think about "what" I'm painting, but rather, in "who am I painting". And that makes a big difference.
THE cashew for example, she is a middle-aged woman and her strongest characteristic is WISDOM. She is someone who can be your mother, your aunt, your cousin, your sister, your friend or even someone you would like to become one day.
Cajuína, with all her serenity, recognizes the complexity of life, understands and respects the universe, because she knows that even though she is part of it, she is as small as a speck of dust. And all she can do is offer to listen to you and try to show you that all the answers you're looking for are within you...
We all have a Cajuína in our lives...
I TALKED ABOUT MY PILLARS, BUT WHAT IS MY BASE MADE OF?
A pillar will only stand if it is built on a good foundation.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to introduce them to you"
"When I work I don't think about art, I think about life."
Jean Michel Basquiat was a contemporary artist.
Born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Haitian.
He was a very successful artist financially, however, he died very early, at 27.
He took his street graffiti into museums, but went beyond that, Basquiat showed that art was not limited to canvas. He painted on any support: doors, girlfriend's clothes, tires etc...
His art expressed the chaos that exists within us, that is, everything we think simultaneously: our relationships (loving, friendship, work), everyday tasks, events (birthdays, weddings, graduations...) , the information that we read in the newspapers among others.
Imagine it all at the same time and now try drawing! This design will probably not have much organization and will be quite expressive. His art was exactly that.
Just to give you an idea, he once made a painting depicting his being run over when he was 7 years old. He fractured some bones. Now try to imagine what goes through the head of a person who has been run over and is in the hospital having tests to see his fractures.
It would certainly be a mess, several images would come to your mind at once: from the broken bone to the moment of the car coming towards you.
Ok, we understand who Basquiat was, but what exactly does he have to do with the Origins Collection project?
Well, firstly it is the structural and institutional break where art should be.
I believe art is for everyone. It doesn't just have to be in museums or in the homes of millionaire collectors, that is, an original and authentic work of art can and should be accessible to ordinary people like you and me.
It is noteworthy that I am talking about works of art and not just a decorative frame that matches the cushions on a sofa.
"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need, but he – for whatever reason – thinks it would be a good idea to give them to them."
Do you know the king of pop? No, I'm not talking about Michael Jackson.
I'm talking about Andy Warhol . An artist in the Pop Art movement.
Andy was born in August 1928, the son of workers who came from Slovakia.
He had a degree in Design and initially worked on a women's shoe campaign. He did commercials, displays for shop windows and even did some work for Vogue.
His first exhibition took place in 1950, exhibiting 15 of his drawings. In 1956 these works went to the modern art museum, boosting his career.
In 1960 he founded his studio which also functioned as a kind of "club". And, in that place, he produced his art and received all kinds of guests to parties where everything was free. Everything!
Andy died twice, the first with gunshots fired by a woman leader of an organization whose purpose was to eliminate all men from the earth)... He was presumed dead but they managed to bring him in with heart massages. And the second time was due to surgery.
Wharhol revolutionized art by creating a production system through screen printing. With this, he managed to replicate images that were linked to popular consumption, from soup cans to celebrity photos. He also did critical work involving serious social problems.
But where is Andy in the Origins Collection project?
Well, it's in the production system of my art. He used the technique of screen printing and I use technological means such as computers, software and very high quality printing to bring to the world what I painted on an LCD screen. And that doesn't make "art less art".
I'll explain: a song doesn't stop being original if it's heard on the radio, on CD or on some platform like Spotify. Just like a movie does not lose its originality and authenticity when shown several times in the cinema or on Netflix.
A R$ 100.00 bill does not lose its value even if there are millions just like it.
So why can't a painting be original and have multiple copies?
Working in this way, I manage to make my art democratic and allow more people to consume it.
"The revolution is the harmony of form and color and everything is, and moves, under one law: life!
no one is apart from anyone
no one fights by itself
Everything is all and one."
Daughter of a German with a Mexican (descendant of indigenous people), Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, shortly before the Mexican revolution. This time, Mexico was ruled by a dictator: Porfírio Diaz (1884 - 1911), who maintained the concentration of wealth and excluded the poor population from the distribution of income, even with the developing country. The revolution took place for the right to use on uncultivated land.
Well, back to Frida: her works were inspired by the popular culture of Mexico, she painted self-portraits where she explored her identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society.
She was introduced to the Mexican Communist Party and became part of a group of political artists and activists.
Kahlo broke all kinds of patterns: she was bisexual, smoked, boxed, beat men in tequila competitions, dressed in men's clothes...
Now imagine: if today we live in the midst of a traditional, retrograde, conservative, straight-faced society! Try to imagine the social outrage she caused back then to show that women could have the same rights as men.
And what good did Frida Kahlo bring to the Origins Collection project?
I can certainly say that it is their political activism. If politics is one of the pillars of the project, Frida is the one who inspired me and was the basis of this structure.
Paintings are just paintings, even as incredible as Frida's are.
But if they have a purpose, they can change the world. Because they carry ideologies.
Frida fought for a more just and egalitarian world and her works immortalized her and her ideals.
This all influences people. She influenced me. The woman I love, too: Andréia, a teacher, has an image of Frida tattooed on her left forearm and, like Frida, she carries the message of gender equality wherever she goes.
On September 1, 1886, in Capivari, in the interior of São Paulo, Tarsila do Amaral was born. She was the daughter of farmers who received their land from their parents' inheritance.
Tarsila had a very comfortable childhood on a coffee farm.
Between trips to and from Paris, he met Picasso and other Cubism artists. Here in Brazil, he also participated in an artistic group that influenced the style of his paintings.
She met the modernist group and Oswald de Andrade, who fell in love with her, dated and married years later.
She returned to Paris, felt an awful longing for Brazil and said that she would really like to be the painter of her land. And, at that time, she painted the canvas in Black.
He returned to Brazil and rediscovered a new country: full of bright colors, beautiful landscapes, and thus began a new style: Pau Brasil.
Tarsila got her first solo exhibition and her Cuca canvas was bought by the French contemporary art museum.
He presented Oswald with one of his paintings that left him "jaw-jawed".
Oswald and Raul Bopp were very impacted by the work and named it Abaporu (a man who eats a man). This work then inspired the antropofagismo movement whose objective was to seek references, artistic and technical knowledge in Europe, bring them to Brazil and create its own style of Brazilian art. Who valued the culture of our country.
And what does Tarsila do Amaral contribute to the Origens Collection project?
It is obvious that Tarsila did not do everything alone, but with a painting, she managed to do what many writers, by the way, excellent writers of that time, could not do through words.
At a time when eyes were turned to Europe, which is the cradle of art, his work motivated everyone in Brazil to look at themselves and our rich culture (nature, customs, food, rituals, clothing, relationships, constructions between so many other things). And that message echoes even today. Therefore, the Origens Collection are paintings inspired by a genuine Brazilian culture: The culture of our native peoples.
SEE THE EDITIONS OF THE ORIGINS COLLECTION NOW
MOTHER EARTH
In this issue, I make an analogy with the task/obligation of the indigenous woman within her village with nature that is seen as a mother because it provides us with food.
So, I illustrate this intimate and magical relationship between indigenous people and nature.
CURUMIM
The Curumim edition will address the respectful relationship of indigenous children with the wild animals of our fauna such as: turtle, macaws, toucans, sloths, tapir, monkeys, among others.
WARRIORS
Here will be the section of the indigenous man hunting, fishing, fighting in village rituals.
GROUPS
That indigenous people are organized and think collectively, we already know that. But have you ever imagined the relationship of indigenous brothers? Friendship between two indigenous girls? The father-son relationship? Grandchildren and grandparents? Of the small groups that go swimming in a river? So they will be right here.
MYTHOLOGY
This edition will be fascinating! At school we learn Greek and Roman mythologies. But they don't even come close to the beauty of the mythology of our originators.
PRICING POLICY
From the beginning of the project, my main objective was to make my art accessible to common people.
Therefore, I had to adopt a pricing policy where scarcity determines the value of the works.
That way I don't quickly drain the production and the work that the client has already acquired is valued.
UNLIMITED
BRL 290.00 reais
NUMBERED
from 01 to 10 = R$ 350.00
of 11 to 20 = BRL 450.00
of 21 to 30 = BRL 600.00
of the 31 to 40 = BRL 750.00
of 41 to 45 = R$ 950.00
of 46 to 49= BRL 1,500.00