Rocinha

During the last few weeks of my time in Rio, I had the opportunity to help out at a center inside a favela called Rocinha. The picture below is an above shot of the place. I believe it is the largest favela in Rio and located next to some of the most wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. It was of great interest to me mostly because of my daily occurrences with seeing the place while taking the bus from Katie's to Paulinho's house. I had a friend who was active in a center teaching English and had told me how they wanted to start having some art classes so for about two weeks I helped out a few days. Here are some pic from what we worked on. It was a really interesting and memorable experience I think I will never forget. I hope I can do it again but next time knowing much more Portuguese... it was a struggle communicating my thoughts with the kids but we got some good laughs out of my pronunciation of words..

Jabuticaba round 2

Stuck in my mind

So I'm back in Baltimore and living in an adorable little house with some sweet roommates. I finally have settled in and also found a dream studio space to begin working on my thesis for MAT. This will begin a new body of research about my time in Brazil, most specifically in Rio. Right now I can't stop thinking about the favelas and that last week I was there the experiences I had. I can't stop visualizing images of favelas themself even though I know the experience being there is completely different. I can't pin point the reasoning behind it other than the visual chaos that stuns me. It is attractive to me and I know they are so much more but the visual itself..is driving me a bit crazy. I can't stop thinking about it. Clusters and groupings. Something that is very present in my work and the process of how I make it. Sooo..with that being said. Here are some images I gathered through this past week. I went to Enoch Pratt Library today and am determined to start reading at least one out of the 5 books I picked up about Rio tomorrow :) I'll let you know how it goes and share anything interesting I discover.

New Artwork around Rio

Marcelo Caldas- Esculturas com jornal! e ferro

New thing in Rio- photos and exploring...

Since my time here is passing by rather quickly, my plan for the next few weeks is to really focus on capturing and seeing as much as I can around the city. New experiences and revisting a few places as well. In particular, I am hoping to spend a few days in Sao Paulo and possibly a week or more in Volta Redonda. I think I finally had an IN to visit the factory..meaning..I can really see what the steel mill is like. I am very excited.

This past weekend I went on a photo excursion with some people from the Couch Surfing community. People from all over came and we went around the city visiting some great sites around the city and some new areas I had never been. It was really nice and something I would enjoy doing every weekend here. We are planning another trip this coming weekend..as long as the rain stays away. Lately it has been pretty crazy..we had so much rain the last two days. The streets all flooded and many people couldn't work.













The week started out great! I installed my new sculpture in Ipanema. Here are some pics from the installation. Joao had an assistant who helped me hang the piece. He was a lot of help and very nice.