Chico Liberato in His Courtyard :: Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

Chico Liberato :: 40 Years of Production

During our visit to Bahia, while we were staying with the Liberatos, Chico was preparing for a 40-year retrospective of his work that is being presented by the State Cultural Center in Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceara. The exhibition will span four decades of production, from his first installations in 1967, including paintings, serigraphs, sculptures, and animated film. I asked him why he didn't try to exhibit in museums in the United States, and he basically said that he didn't want to bother with the bureacracy; that at this stage of his artistic career he was more interested in creating dialogues and cultural exchanges than in being celebrated.

Chico Liberato's Private Collection

This is a painting in Chico Liberato's home in Salvador, Bahia, Brasil.

Passageiro do Vento :: Itaparica Island, Bahia, Brasil

Passageiro do Vento :: Itaparica Island, Bahia, Brasil

Just down the street from the Instituto Sacatar, on Itaparica Island, is an amazing pousada run by a French ex-patriate pirate: Passageiro do Vento. An astonishingly beatiful place.

Vine in the Rainforest :: Manaus, Brasil

Wild Orchids in the Amazon :: Manaus, Brasil

A Visit to Gabriel Arcanjo's Studio in Salvador

We've just returned from a trip to the Amazon and Bahia, where we had the pleasure of meeting with Gabriel Arcanjo in his studio at the Museum of Modern Art in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. We bought 13 works on paper from Gabriel, covering a period of 12 years of production. Among these are a great number of traditional cordel prints, and 3 of Gabriel's new works, which clearly evidence his own artistic evolution- using the traditional forms and motifs he developed over many years of working within the cordel tradition to create uniquely contemporary forms of great beauty and simplicity.

Chico Liberato's First Painting Has Arrived Stateside

We have just received Chico Liberato's painting "Humanos/Felinos" (Humans/Felines) from Brazil. The painting is 60 centimeters square, about 23 inches across- but, like most of his work, has an energetic presence that is much larger than the physical space it takes up. I've had the experience with his work of having to clear off an entire wall to give his paintings, even of this size, enough room to breathe. What always astonishes me about Chico's paintings, beyond their technical virtuosity, is the way that they read completely differently depending on how far away from them you are standing. Up close, the intricate details of the feathers and the texture of the jaguars are what stands out, as well as the expression on the faces of the dancers. From about six feet away what starts to happen is that the band of dark green outlining the dancers and the jaguars begins to come alive in its own right, and the rest of the canvas begins to appear as if it is radiating away from this green 'creature' that has suddenly emerged. Again, Chico's use of color is such that if you are focusing on the green band, the colors of the cactus and the light rays around the dancers heads begin to vibrate, since your eye can't see these colors next to eachother without them flickering. And that is when the canvas truly comes alive, and you begin to see it as a dynamic visual field that is awake and changing. My god the man can paint!

Some Nice Publicity in the Alliance of Artist Communities Newsletter

This is a link to some nice publicity about us in the Alliance of Artist Communities newsletter. We were the cover story of the winter issue of the newsletter, and you can read the article here. In the article, I'm speaking about my own personal transition from writing fiction to making visual art, which took place while I was in residence at the Instituto Sacatar, an amazing artist residency program on the Island of Itaparica, off the coast of Bahia Brazil.

Atelier do Brasil is powered by biodiesel

One of the things I noticed during my first trip to Brasil was that at every gas station we came to there was a choice of petrol, alcohol, or ethanol. Drivers buy whichever happens to be cheapest that day. Ford, and Chevrolet, and every other American car-maker that builds cars in Brazil designs them to run on any of these fuel sources. Consider then, that the reason you can't run cleaner burning alcohol in your car here, in the United States, is not because the technology doesn't exist, as these very car companies use it in their most basic designs in Brasil. When I got back to the country, we took on a challenge. My grandfather, who designs green homes in St. Louis Missouri, has been running Toyota Priuses since they came onto the market. Our challenge was to find a vehicle with comparable fuel economy that burned cleaner than the Prius, for a third of the price. Pictured above is our '99 Volkswagen Golf TDI, running on biodiesel. We bought the car for under six thousand dollars. Because it is a diesel engine, it can run biodiesel with no modifications. We picked it up at the shipping depot, drove it over to the Biofuel Oasis and filled. Running biodiesel, we're getting between 42 and 47 miles a gallon. Our first tank gave us 490 miles. Biodiesel does not combust until it reaches approximately 350 degrees, so you can store it in your trunk. We carry ten gallons in the back of the car, and then we can fuel when we want to. With a full tank and the fuel in the trunk we've got a thousand mile driving range. And of course, if you run out of biodiesel, you can fuel at any diesel station since the engine can run a blend of diesel and biodiesel at any time. The fuel filter needs to be changed more often when you are running biodiesel, as it acts as a solvent and will clean out accumulated residue in the fuel lines. I've also noticed, honestly, that the car doesn't have quite as much acceleration as it does running on diesel. That said, I can lie down behind my car and inhale at the tailpipe while its running and it smells like I'm sucking up fumes from a french fryer. And I don't pass out. Biodiesel sells for $3.65 a gallon presently at the Biofuel Oasis, but I'm getting over 40 mpg, and my car has the same emissions as a deep fryer. The simple truth is I just feel good driving it. And that makes me happy.

Introducing Atelier do Brasil

Atelier do Brasil is a private fine art gallery located in Forest Knolls, California (Western Marin county) that specializes in art from the Brazilian north-east. We are privileged to represent a small selection of world-class artists from Bahia whose work includes paintings, sculpture, traditional woodblock prints, and artisanal furniture. The gallery’s website is available here www.atelierdobrasil.com. At the site you can view the work of our artists, learn more about them, and make arrangements to visit the gallery. We created a blog to chronicle our more day-to-day activities, and to share our enthusiasms about Brazil and brazilian culture. Here you’ll find information about environmental work we are doing in relation to the gallery, brazilian culture, and the institutions with which we are privileged to be affiliated. We have fallen deeply in love with Brazil, its people and culture– and hope that in visiting the blog, the website, and our gallery you are touched by the joy, vitality, and positivity of this immeasurably beautiful country, its people, and its artistic spirit.

Abraços,
Gabriel