A Man's Volcano Drawing

I’m a self-taught artist, born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. All my work and creative process are based on three distinct ways of operating, sometimes interconnected, sometimes not: brute expression, improvisation, and juxtaposition. My creations start from small ideas given by everyday life, epiphanies, poetry (that I read a lot and write for my own pleasure) or even from the absence of any idea, the result being something unexpected, only slightly influenced by my previous acquaintance with artistic knowledge and technics. It is an impromptu conversation between me and the materials at hand in my home: canvases, available colors, pencils, pastel, watercolor, acrylic paint, drawing pens, pieces of any kinds of paper, and wood or cardboard found on the street. Accidents can happen, and they’re OK because perfection does not exist and will never exist. Expressiveness and beauty may be in something old, broken, rejected, dirty. And given that, my work is very physical. The fabric tends to fold, get wrinkled; the mixing of different paints and materials can crack – similarly to individual personality and human feelings. Nevertheless, rescuing materials or objects that apparently don't belong to the pictorial world, from their daily or conventional use elevates them to new categories, demanding new ways of seeing and new interpretations − even from myself. novacomix@gmail.com