Thought a good, effective way to create some intimacy around here would be through one of my favourite activities: writing.
If you are reading this, it is very likely that we haven't (yet!) met in person and how amazing it is for me to think that my story would be of any interest to you! I see you and I appreciate all the love and support I've been getting since I started this intense, crazy journey of making art. So, out of total gratitude, let me guide you through my not so long but insanely fulfilled life.
It all began back in 1992 in a tiny city on the south side of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. I'm a Taurus, in case you're wondering. Not your typical one though - sun, rising, moon AND venus in Taurus and yet, I'm the least glutton, lazy and attached person you might ever come across.
My folks, also Brazilian, had been living in Portugal 5 years prior to my birth and felt like surprising the entire family by showing up unannounced with my mom almost exploding with me. 1 month later, we were back in Lisbon and things started getting interesting.
I'm a single child and - not gonna lie - that was the biggest burden during my young years. See, I'm a VERY creative and communicative individual and literally all I wanted to do was to come up with stories and scripts. Either for the barbies to roleplay or for me to perform in front of my dad's old recording camera. Thank God for my child neighbors.
Writing and drawing were two of my most precious activities. I would turn up earlier from recess only to go back to the essay I was previously creating. At some point, though - and as it so often happens with children the age I was - I developed this certainty that I was not good enough for art and that art itself would not get me anywhere. Even when, a couple years later, I joined a theather company and was told I had talent, my already wired brain would tell me there was no point.
Thinking back now, I feel like that was the reason I decided to graduate in Advertising and Marketing: it was the closest thing to art that would not make me be an actual artist. After all, an artistic path is a little too much to ask, right? And who am I to question the script?
On the other side of things, my not so usual life story would make me interrogate my identity: am I Brazilian or Portuguese? Where do I belong and where is home? Funny enough, those thoughts would make my curiosity for the world out there flourish. My parents had a significant role in this too. We would travel as much as we could and by a very young age I would have already visited a lot of countries. Not to mention the yearly visits to Brazil and so when, at some early stage, I announced I wanted to go on my first solo move abroad, it was not so surprising. Finland it was.
(To be continued...)
Leave a comment