We said the final goodbye to him today, in Portugal's day of Freedom, the 25th of April with a glorious sun shining, and flowers (carnation revolution) all over town.
A day full of color and light to him. Sure deserved and appropriated.
João worked with costume and set design. I remember his set of different shoe laces, with several colors he combined according to his outfit. It was just a slight manifestation of his acute aesthetic sense, always present.
Still so vivid in my mind, his scratched voice, amongst his will to see things, until the end. Last time I met him, was a couple of weeks ago at the theatre.
Wherever he went to, even when he was most ill, João had an aristocratic countenance that led me to affectionately, call him Prince.
Not long ago, I have made a portrait from him, and he took this picture of me, doing it.
According to his visual precepts, I had to chose the majestic golden color, to wrap him.
So here it is, my tribute to a friend who will always be a bright star, for all of us.
I started to do this drawing a while before last Friday's news. Having already this drawing in my mind, I did a little research about that mythological figure, to make my own version.
Believed to have super powers over natural causes like storms, floods and typhoons, at the same time, dragons profess an ideal of great strength, creativity, power and luck.
In Chinese Zodiac, Dragons are known to be blessed throughout their lives, they are very energetic, eccentric and megalomaniac. Although, they are also known to be selfish, and they might not always practice what they preach.
This short Chinese sign Dragon description, makes a bridge between its early representations, aforementioned, and nowadays' role of politicians, terrorists and of us, citizens of this world.
The dragon has a powerful force whose able to positively change or destroy. It's a power one should use very wisely and for the well being of all. The recent terrorism acts in Lebanon, Pakistan, France, Tunisia, and Turkey and the millions of refugees escaping from Syria, for example, are the result of the state this planet is in. And we, human beings, capable of loving, of caring and, that are lucky to be alive, have the obligation to change this.
Without borders, flags and religions, there is a dragon in my room.
To all the persons in the world struggling and suffering right now, my thoughts are with you.
Thank you Henning, for inspiring me in the title of this post. This is for you too.
The interview that Bruno Gonçalves gave to Arquitectura do Ruído's program (from Radio Zero), where he speaks of my drawings and texts and other important things to the conscience of all: artists, non-artists, those who live searching for a different and better world than the one we have today. It was the present for my day today.
Listen here the interview (in Portuguese) and review here the drawing and the text I wrote about this musician.
Today, and since its beginning, Inner Tour Blog reached over 30.000 visits from all over the world!
I have written about it before, if you're curious, check out a little bit of its story here.
Just since last year, people from 113 countries visited my blog.
Google Analytics Stats Map of Inner Tour Blog geographic provenance visits since last year, 2014. The Countries in blue are the ones from where the visits were coming from.
Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Servia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zambia - THANK YOU!
His music is a world landmark and an endless source of inspiration in my life.
I leave you here some of my favorites...
Santo António (Saint Anthony) was Portuguese and is traditionally, the patron of weddings. He also happens to be Lisbon's city patron, where he was born. On his day, on the 12th of June, is held one of the biggest parties of this town and, in Brazil, it is celebrated as Valentine's Day.
The Montreux Jazz Festival concert is one of his mythical performances. Great band & great sound! Also, on this event, Elis Regina and Hermeto Pascoal had a famous musical encounter.
This last one reminds me when I was with Hermeto and Aline Morena in Brazil. Unforgettable time my friends! I love it!
Hermeto once told me, Miles Davis gave an interview where the journalist asked him if he died and was reborn again who did he wanted to be. He answered "Hermeto Pascoal".
No wonder why.
May his music brighten your day. Enjoy!
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Back in the days, me and my dear friend Teresa grabbed our heavy backpacks and inter railed around Europe visiting friends and making new ones too. We visited several cities in Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Austria and this drawing above was made on our way to Linz. Seven years later, Teresa now lives in Australia and I miss her to bits.
I am sharing this today because it was because of this drawing called Viagem Interior (Inner Tour) that this blog has that name. And today is a special day for my blog.
It was some years ago, from 2010 to 2011, after spending some time living and traveling in Brazil, that I decided to make public this blog.
In the beginning it was just a mean to share some of the pictures and drawings I had made with family and friends that were around several places, but, over time, I started posting older works and publishing new ones too.
It was a blog with my images, and I didn't spoke much about it. It was something I did in a part time mode, whenever I had free time. Now it has became an almost full time job.
After presenting this project in Conversas in 2012, people asked that I should start telling the stories behind my images on the blog too, and so I started writing and sharing my thoughts and stories along with drawings and photos I made.
Two years afterwords, traveling, arts and people are still the thing that moves me, and today I am happy to say I have reached over 20000 views in this blog and over 2000 likes on my facebook page!
Visitors from all around the world keep seeing Inner Tour, that has today readers from Portugal, Russia, Austria, South Africa, Japan, Iceland, Spain, Romania, Germany, Estonia, Argentina, Turkey, India, Switzerland, Israel, The Netherlands, Qatar, Vietnam, Denmark, Thailand, Sweden, Colombia, Norway, Chile, Italy, Hong Kong, USA, Hungary, Bulgaria, China, Cape Verde, France, Canada, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, UK, Finland, Panama, Brazil, Ireland, Pakistan, Angola, Poland, Taiwan, Serbia, Czech Republic, Singapore, Senegal and many others.
I have to mention all the persons that shared their art, knowledge and life with me, that inspired me at all means, and believed in my work; and all my friends and family who have accompanied me in this Inner Tour too.
This blog turned out to be one of the nicest surprises in my life. It is a blessing and you are the reason why I do it. THANK YOU!!
This year my Facebook Page achieved 1000 likes. The lucky 1000th got this unique exemplar tailor made surprise home. In China!
All text was manually composed by myself, and stamped by hand. A special mask was used to do the 1000. The repeated word in the background is "Obrigado" (Thank you).
My imagination kept me working on this for days!
The next milestone like will get a surprise gift as well :)
Following the news about Ukraine, I was thinking for some time I wanted to do some interpretative painting about it.
It is my Ukraine Shot.
A story of two twins that crossed my life and represented each a different color of Ukraine (that, by the way, means border) and its nowadays duality.
I am specifically talking about the Ukrainian artists and models, Anna and Sonia Kuprienko (The Bloom Twins) whom I had seen live last year, and have drawn them too. Since then, I have been following their work with attention.
Last February, The Bloom Twins shared on their official Facebook page, a Cover they've done from Bob Marley/Peter Tosh's song "Get Up Stand Up". The lyrics are moving and so their interpretation. To remember:
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!
Get up, stand up! (jah, jah! )
Stand up for your rights! (oh-hoo! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Don't give up the fight! (life is your right! )
Get up, stand up! (so we can't give up the fight! )
Stand up for your rights! (lord, lord! )
Get up, stand up! (keep on struggling on! )
Don't give up the fight! (yeah! )
We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )
So you better:
Get up, stand up! (in the morning! git it up! )
Stand up for your rights! (stand up for our rights! )
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (don't give it up, don't give it up! )
Get up, stand up! (get up, stand up! )
Stand up for your rights! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Don't give up the fight! (get up, stand up! )
Get up, stand up! (... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!
Their choice of doing this cover after all the public happenings stirred emotions on me.
Not just following the news that arrived here, I started searching a bit more about both sides of the conflict and about the country too. I read and saw some pictures about it too to get inspired and then decided this interpretative visual work of mine should go back to basics: the visual imaginary roots and symbol of the country - its flag.
Ukraine is a big wheat producer; the yellow in the flag revolves to that, and the blue to the sky. One could even relate the symbolic communist meaning of wheat - food, provision and work - the basis. Above that, is a magnanimous blue sky. How poetic is that?
I wonder how millions of Ukrainians around the world must feel about their relatives and friends there and how the ones rebelling in the country must be. No matter the will and the interests between Ukraine and Russia and the international community, it strikes me down people were violently killed and wounded because one day they willed to be free to express themselves.
This article and drawing are dedicated to all of those whose integrity was corrupted.
Who knows if one day they can become "translators", builders of communication, of a bridge to come between East and West.
I wish the poetic I found in the flag - once shot by this sad situation - can be reestablished. May the Phoenix myth take place and let the ashes become beauty.
Thank you Anna and Sonia, who inspired me and helped me having material about your country.
My illustration-collage inspiration was woman emancipation, woman as a creative driving force, woman as a volcano about to burst, the red lipstick as a powerful shocking gossip; being red, the color with the power to paralyze, to call one's attention.
This illustration relates to Visão's article, where they wrote something like:
"Storm in Experimenta
Financial difficulties, two cases in the Labour Court, lit General Assemblies and internal wars shake Experimenta, the cultural association responsible for a mediatic design biennial held in Lisbon and which Guta Moura Guedes is the main face"
Since Visão Magazine came out with this article, the overtime efforts of keeping up the appearances of Experimentadesign (aka EXD) became pointless since some unpleasant parts of this engine are officially public.
Created in 1998, it is of undeniable doubt that EXD has had over time a very important role catapulting some of our Portuguese Design talent, putting Portugal in the Design scene and bringing International important names of Design here.
One didn't expect anything less that this biennial and its employees are properly paid on time. It's a shame for Portuguese Cultural scene that this isn't the case.
Starting with the profit disease, the economical crisis, the way we look towards what it was the instituted power, what we value now, how we perceive ourselves too as active agents of this whole context... it seems the world is changing.
May this episode of the EXD history be a wise lesson for all parts involved, with all good and bad that that might implicate.
