Art Project with Children from public School in Brasilia

During my exhibition “Olhares Intimos” at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), in Brasilia, the idea for a project arose with the curator and my sister Andrea Cabral. We invited Max Cocay, then director of the public school SHI – Sul, in Brasília, to make a survey of interest in his school, about kids interested in art, who had some aptitude for drawing or painting.

We then invited these children to take a guided tour of the exhibition with us. I spoke about my artistic journey, habits, creative process, so that they could be inspired and even to convey the message that it is possible to make a living from art today, as well as to make one’s dreams come true.

Shortly after the visit, the students were taken to a large space in the court, where they found canvases of various formats, acrylic paints and brushes supplied with the court, so that the children could exercise their artistic potential with complete freedom.

I explained how to mix some basic paints and that, to use different color paint, the brush should be cleaned first. They could paint the theme they wanted and also get together in groups to paint the canvases, or do it individually, as they preffered. We were impressed with the results: The students got together, had fun, switched places to paint, mixed paints, laughed. They did very beautiful and colorful works.

In the end we hugged, took pictures together and there was a feeling of teamwork in the air, a creative air. The court staff was happy to help with anything children needed. Above all, they left with positive messages about art, with a seed planted in their souls about exercising their own artistic inspirations.

After the event, I took the canvases to Italy, where I live, and I am preparing a series of paintings in which I paint each child in the foreground, on the canvas they painted, using photos taken during the event. It is a combination of my style and that of the children, as the background is totally painted by them.

I want to respect the work they did, creating compositions that value important parts of the painting they did and have a harmonious communication between the painted child and the background. It will be a complex task, but for sure the results will be incredible, combining the memories of that day with my artistic experience.