Nova Arte Nova

Ok. So. I decided to go ahead and start talking about some art I saw and experienced while in Rio.

I guess I should preface this by saying that my original intention of going on this trip was to learn about the thriving commercial industry that has developed in certain parts of the country. My hope was that it would inspire my work and build connections with the industry in Baltimore. I guess I was a little in over my head and realized I needed to take baby steps to get to that point in my searching. I came to this realization pretty quickly when it was nearly impossible for me to hold a conversation with someone who was a native speaker but I tried to not let it discourage me. I realized that there were plenty of other things I wanted and probably needed to learn prior to this in-depth research I want to do. It all takes time. Sometimes you just can't rush these things and honestly..who needs to..or wants to.

So..I began to focus on learning more about the artists in Rio as well as other parts of Brazil. I begin to ask questions such as: What type of work was being made? How is art a part of daily lives? What materials are used? What type of organizations or communities are formed in the city? Where do people study art? Classes?

Through all my searching I was amazed to find some really interesting parts of the city that offer a wonderful array of art and met many practicing artists, thanks to Katie. I think by far I was impressed by two particular places. One is an area in the city called Santa Teresa and the other located in downtown Centro.

I had the opportunity to visit Santa Teresa towards the end of my trip and am very thankful that my friend Dan was willing to take me there. It is located up near Corcovado where the Christ the Redeemer statue is located. It sits up on the mountain and almost feels like you aren't actually in the city but in a small little town. All the streets wind in different directions and the houses are all distinct, really historic. Here are a few pics of some of the buildings.

They had a welcome center so I met a nice man who told me about their open studio they have each July. All the studios in the area are open to visitors and people from the city come to see the new work that these artists have been creating. Last year over 75 artists participated in the event. It is hosted by Chave Mestra. Luckily they had some leftover programs from the event this past July and I purchased on to find out more about the yearly event. It has images of the work the different artists create and I was really impressed. Unfortunately it was all in Portuguese so I wasn't able to fully translate everything. I was told however, that we were welcome to try to visit any of the studios to see if the artist might be working that day, but just to phone ahead of time. We tried a few but most weren't available. One man answered and invited us in his place. He makes lamps using thin pieces of wood. They make really intricate and beautiful designs. Here is a scan from the program that shows a few samples of his work.

I am trying really hard to make it back in time for this event! Perhaps I can meet a few different artist and interview them for my blog?

If I end up living in Rio for a year..I think I would want to live somewhere here. I saw a few signs around the area looking for room mates and the cost was reasonable so it isn't out of the question. We shall see. The only problem would be getting home at nice safely. You have to take a bus down to Centro and then switch to get to areas like Copacabana or Ipanema or Barra. Who knows though.

Now that I have mentioned Centro. Let me start by showing you a picture I took lookinf down on Centro from Santa Teresa. I love this photo!
It would be a good time to tell you about this other place located in the Banco Central do Brasil. This show called Nova Arte Nova featured young up and coming artists from all over Brazil. I was so excited to have found this show because it offered so many different artists and work that was being produced by people around my age. I had originally planned on visiting the São Paulo Biennial and after research and reading about it in the papers, I became really discouraged about the show. Everyone and everything I read about said that is was a bust. There wasn't enough funding, the building was mostly empty, and a lot of the artists weren't Brazilian. This really upset me because it was something I was really looking forward to seeing. Then Katie took me to this show Nova Arte Nova and it made up for all my prior disappointment. This bank located downtown, has three or four gallery spaces that features different art shows. This show was created in hopes of presenting the output of young artists to the public at large. Except for the São Paulo Biennial, contemporary art is generally displayed only in small galleries. These images were taken in the space. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos anywhere else in the space.



I bought a book that features all the artists that were in the show. I intend on talking about a few of them in the next entry and scan some images of their work. It is took good to not be shared with others.

Old work. Rediscovered.

So..Lately I've been thinking about how to make this blog more unique to my interests and am thinking about focusing the next several entries around the art I saw and experience while in Rio as well as some additional research I have done since I returned. There are a lot of really good blogs out there that focus on Brazil and more specifically Rio. My favorites are listed on the left side of the page so be sure to check them out because they are all really interesting in different ways.

While I am gathering and compiling the next entry..Here is an image that I thought would be worth sharing.



When I was about 13 years old my cousin Nalita and her son Nelson moved to Westerville, Ohio from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was a new exciting addition to the family that we already had in Westerville. When I was in high school I did a painting from a photograph I found in an old National Geographic Magazine of Copacabana Beach not really knowing much about Brazil at that time. Little did I know, 8 years later I would see it in person. I guess I was probably 15 or 16 years old when I painted this.

In addition I wanted to mention how much I think this trip has helped me learn more about my family in Rio and also become closer with Nelson and Nalita. I am fortunate to have such a loving and welcoming family. Since Nanny and Poppy's passing I think my parents, sister and I have been trying to build new traditions and hold onto the family we have left as well as work towards getting to know some relatives better. We started some new traditions this past holiday and it turned out to be really great. I am sure Nanny and Poppy were really happy to see us all together.

Mr. Jorge

I am working on gathering some research for my next post and thought this would be a good time to post some drawings I did while I was in Brazil. I bought a sketch book to use and also kept a journal. I ended up using the journal more and made mini sketches most of the time and did a lot of writing and collages with images from the paper and little things I had collected.

These are some drawings of Mr. Jorge. Mr. Jorge is my cousin Katie's father in-law. He is a very sweet old man. I lived with him while I was in Rio because he lives in Katie and Victor's house. I would see him every morning because we got up around the same time..but occasionally I would sleep in later then him! He would say good morning to me and I would do the same. It was one of the few things I could say to him because I couldn't speak very good Portuguese and he couldn't speak English plus he was a little hard of hearing. Occasionally he would start talking to me in Portguese..trying to have a real conversation and I would attempt to listen but usually couldn't make out what he was asking me.

These drawings I made of him are from when he would sit in the family room and watch television. He liked watching futebol with Victor or sometimes novelas (soap operas). He was probably one of the best models I have ever had because he didn't move much unless he fell asleep. He is over 90 years old! He is a very kind man and I am glad that I met him. He loved to smile and seemed to fill the room with happiness.

Obama Everywhere!

I recently subscribed to one of the many Google ad ons...Google Alerts. Google has taken over my life! I get daily updates about websites and articles that discuss Rio. This one came up this morning in my email and I thought it was particularly interesting because it touches on something that I witnessed a lot while I was in Brazil.



For the first month I was in Brazil before I really knew how to get around and felt comfortable, my cousin suggested I take a cab to get into the city. Unfortunately taking a cab back in forth became pretty expensive because I was traveling from Barra to Botafogo and with traffic it took awhile. Ended up being around 40 heis each way but this is really besides the point. During these trips often time little communication happened amongst me and the driver. Usually only a couple things were asked or discussed. One being who are you voting for..Obama or McCain and every time I would say Obama, they could cheer or give me thumbs up. It happened on practically every occasion in which I told someone I was an American.

There was one specific incident I wanted to share..I met this woman named Beth who is a relative of my cousin Katie's husband. She and I had an interesting discussion about the effects this election will have on our country. She was talking to me about the problems with their President Lula which I knew a little bit about but not much before visiting. There is a book that I have been meaning to read that was released recently in the US that tells the story of his life. It is called Lula of Brazil: The Story So Far From what I have read about the book, it is a positive look at what the president has a accomplished for the country but the majority of the people I talked to while I was in Brazil, about Lula, talked really negatively about the President so I am very interested in reading this book and sharing it with my friends in Brazil to get their opinion.

But back to Beth, she works for an American company based out of Baltimore, Maryland! which was crazy to hear and made me really excited to talk to her about what she thought of the city because I love it so much.

She also had a lot to say about Americans and the upcoming election.

It was always really hard to hear someone talk about people from your country, while I was in Brazil, because often times, or at least in my case, they had negative things to say about Americans and often times I think it is a little unfair. I mean I guess it is all relative to who you meet and what impressions you cast on someone. Sometimes that impression can become someones one stereotype of people from that area which really is unfortunate. We all are different. Beth however had a positive comment, she told me she thought Americans were the most hard working people she has ever met. That was really nice to hear and made me proud to be an American which commonly doesn't happen because sadly often times the negatives are highly more publicized.

She did however talk to me about her concerns about Obama becoming president. It was pretty intimidating. I guess for me because, here I was visiting another country and experiencing all this chaos my country was going through, through a television and newspaper and I guess for many Americans back home it could've been similar. Beth flat out told me, people who aren't from America typically don't like it. They don't like Americans. They are laughing at you right now because your country is falling apart. I didn't really know what to say. She doesn't have much confidence in Obama but I beg to differ. I think he offers something Americans need right now which is hope and with that we can bring change. I know that he has a lot of pressure on him and honestly I know it can't be all done but any change right now for the better is what we need. Optimisim is the key.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

This is an article I found about a month ago and found it really interesting and a good resource for my work.

I remember while being in Brazil, I had a discussion with Katie about the newspaper industry there. The use and need for communication through the paper is much more significant because many people don't have the internet, it isn't as common as it is in US which makes since, so the newspaper has become there main source of news and information. I started grabbing the local paper that was handed out on my way onto the metro each day. I would sit on the train and attempt to read some of it, often times referring to the pictures for further explanation. Gave me something to look forward to on those daily trips.

New thoughts. New Work

I am going to be completely honest...I'm just going to come out and say it..I've been having a tough time making new work! On another note..I am going to continue working off the last paper technique I came up with but feel the need to make some more two dimensional work right now.

I guess I just feel this pressure to make something greater than the last work I made and that stresses me out which causes me not to want to make any? I guess it is a little ridiculous but sadly the fact. So the other day I decided to start working on something. Something new. Fresh. Anything that got me making and this is what I've started. I decided to share it. It does seem like much right now but it is kind of the beginning to something that I think could be really exciting. These are very very rough sketches.





I've always had an interest in mapping. It has been apart of my work before and am starting to experiment with using newspaper to create mappings. They will definitely become much more complex but I have to get a good technique down first. I will post more when I have some completed. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Graffiti

I promised to post these awhile ago and wanted to make sure I shared them. Here are a few images of some graffiti I saw around the city. There was a whole bunch and unfortunately I only got pictures of a few. As I mentioned in the last post, I did a lot of walking around the city and during one of these walks I stopped by a gallery in Copacabana. The artist's work that was feature in the show was a graffiti artist and I had seen his work a lot throughout the city. I am going to try to research more about it and hopefully find his name but for now here are some random ones.