It's all so lush! É tudo tão exuberante!
The “saudades” that I feel is too much!
Too much natural exuberance, too many constructions!
Too many people, to many happy people, even though, with so many hardships…
The power of who I am is formed by these all too much.
I came back to Brazil in December 2022 after being away for four years.
I thought I would feel like an Explorer on my own land but no!
This is still so mine! I try to gaze with the lens of a foreign to my city, my forest and people, but in seconds I just discovered and soaked its wonders again and again.
The artwork is a collation of Pieces of my visual and emotional memories about my Beloved Brazil deconstructed and put back together to form a powerful totem of who I am.
The power of the tapestry of images of Brazil that are amalgamated in my soul are too much!
It’s an explosion of different places, tastes, cultures and emotions…
(Saudade is described as a kind of melancholy yearning. Melancholy means sad, and yearning is a strong, persistent longing or desire, especially for something unattainable.
www.dictionary.com)
Mixed Media work for Toró it's all so much!
Between Individuals and Places
Individuals and Places
Art and Architecture
Feelings and Science
Sometimes for me is hard to choose what to sketch or paint … I prefer it all…
These are two recently sketches that I did on Procreate. It’s a digital sketch and can be used in your home as a decoration or as render of your new project.
Contact me about your personal one.
Looking forward to to drawing something for you!
Xx beijos Mila
Walking on orange streets
Urban Beach - design by AR+D Architecture & Bossley Architecture
Kotahitanga - Shared Life lines
Shared Life Lines is a collection of sketches featuring migrant families from around the Waikato.
Mila balances the use of line movement and watercolour to portray emotion, capture scenes, and tell stories.
Together with other 9 artists from Waikato aiming to create awareness about immigrant families stories .
Get to know the collection of artworks at
“Everyone has a story and is a valuable member of society. We are all heroes inhabiting the same land.”
KOTAHITANGA - Shared life lines
Together with other nine artists from WAIKATO, I have been commissioned by Creative Waikato to execute this art proposal to create awareness about the necessity of union of people of all cultures and creeds.
https://kotahitangagallery.nz/
I have chosen to explore through lines and colours of the fear and anxiety many immigrants are facing in New Zealand.
Drawing allows me to:
See, perceive and feel,
But I also want to listen, understand and share!
Four years ago, Aotearoa New Zealand received our family. I acknowledge that the land with its seas, mountains, bushes and amazing skies have wondered me and because of that I started drawing and painting again. I am grateful for meeting amazing people here that made me happy and allowed me to work and live. These people are from every part of the globe and many of course from many generations born and breed here. The habits, life stories and ideas that we share have widened my perspectives. But most of the days, I still feel as a foreign
I want to draw the shared Lines between us.
We are all made of shared lines and energies. Coming from Brazil, I am an immigrant that followed the necessity and desire to find a safer and free space for my children to grow up. I have followed the pathway of some of my ancestors that moved from Europe to Brazil and there found other people and Brazilians with whom they mixed. They also contributed as many other to build a new mixed society where I grow up, lived and worked for almost four decades.
I honour all those made this life change like me. It is not easy at all, especially in the middle of your life. Here in New Zealand in very happy that I found a job as architectural draftsperson where I have been designing affordable houses especially for Kainga Ora Housing and Communities. As many other people here I feel part of the machine that moves economy and contribute to the fostering of cities and life’s. Moreover, as an artist I can bring up and share my emotions by creating my watercolours.
However, at the moment I wrote this proposal, one month ago, I did not know if I would be able to stay in New Zealand as my residence visa took more than one year and half to be analysed. Just two weeks ago our resident visas came. Now we can really put our feet here!
Unfortunately with this lack of certainty I could not avoid feeling fear and anxiety. I acknowledge that we are leaving uncertain times and this is causing panic and stress to everyone. Not only to immigrants… many kiwis with business as well are suffering with labour shortage.
The question is just not only me, as our family there are thousands of people that chosen and committed to the country and now have this uncertainty due to an unclear, money and time consuming pathway to residence. New Zealand has now the longest residence queues in its history that have been growing since 2018, before Covid-19 pandemic. And the main expression of interest queue has been frozen for over a year and half.
Government has been changing priorities and they probably are needed but changes should be more transparent and proactive so people can have certainty of their decisions to stay or go. Many don’t have the option to go back and gave everything to live here. Others thousands of families have been split with part here and part overseas and many cannot even go away to say a last goodbye to parents that have passed away overseas. It’s hard to put roots and many already left or are planning to live due to uncertainty and for sure to find safer harbor to grow roots.
But what is my proposal?
When I started painting I was focused on landscapes and the last two years I have been focusing a lot of efforts on drawing people
As a distant observer I see, perceive and draw people that I often do not know. Drawing is a universal and guttural way of communication that I use.
I try to capture their emotions in these instants of the city life that soon are swallowed by routine. But I don’t listen to the stories that they carry from their own or from their ancestors. I observe their clothes, gestures and body features and through different linework I express my feelings about the scene capturing also the mood with bold washes of colour. Thus time I want to observe and draw but also listen to immigrants like me but also to kiwis to understand what they think, dream or even fear. Through the drawings more people will be able to see and feel these emotions. The idea is to put more light on the fear and anxiety that immigrants are facing with these long and uncertain pathways to residence nowadays.
Like during the great expeditions that surveyors and artists came amongst the sailors to depict the local people and new lands, I will draw our time and place for a few weeks in a sketchbook. Like in a journey I will illustrate than also scan and write about it on my Instagram artist account, sharing also short videos of people speaking together with the art.
Throughout drawings with ink and coloured watercolour washes on a cotton paper professional sketchbook I will create a collection of samples of the society in Waikato , New Zealand 2021. These drawings will be representative of the mixed community we live.
Everyone has a story. We are walking books that I want to understand and illustrate. We often judge people by how they look so visually we could either accentuate our differences or show our similarities.
My references for this proposal are my own sketchbooks with figurative drawings and the Human Library project that started in Denmark and even had an experience in 2014 at The Hamilton Central library.
Moreover, another reference is the sculptural installation from Israeli sculptor Zadok Ben-David “People I saw but never met” that includes more than six-thousand figures of men, women and children. The artist says that there was something in their presence, gesture or even facial expression that show our humanity but also our uniqueness.
It is important to look at our shadows and understand emotions both individually and collectively.
My goal is to create drawing of our people’s to represent the mixed community of New Zealand and that might allow to understand the importance of immigrants as working and playful part of a changing society. In a moment that we are mainly staggered here we need to know each other’s more and that will possibly widen our views.
I hope to show that all lives have value. That our energies and the energies that we carry through the stories and habits of our ancestors are essential to woven together a more fair society for our next generation’s. These lines might also mend wounds with love and compassion. At least my own…
X-mas Hope
Feliz Nartal e um Ano Novo melhor para todos nós !
A Merry Christmas and better New Year or everyone!
Not too sure what to say so I’d better paint so choose these yellow pines that reminds me of hope. We are finishing this strange year of our lives with a hope of the vaccines but still fear and sadness in so many families torn apart by grief, sadness or economical struggle. Certainly, we had much more time this year to spend with what really matters, our families.
My mission is to bring colour and beauty to our life’s and especially this year it’s been harder for everyone to keep a good mood and probably ART is one of the best ways to elevate our spirits! I hope mine had made you smile once in a while. A big thank you to you for sharing, supporting and encouraging me in this pathway through art and emotions
Best wishes from my family to yours!
I’ll be with my family resting and being inspired by the beautiful nature around Northland.
Sea, sand, Walks in the bush, chilling out with my family and good wine&food! I hope you have a great time with your family even if you are in lockdown for those outside NZ. I will be creating but out from social media until the 11th of January.
X Mila
Book cover
Letters, memories and feelings. Stories that got lost in the corridor of a university hospital.
It was amazing opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Gustavo Astur in his book. Short stories that are so important for us to understand the pressure and feelings of impotence that those who study and work with health suffers. The book is now on Amazon.
Talk to me about your illustration project and we can create something unique!
Eclectic Journeys Solo exhibition at Deciduus and Santie Art Gallery
Eclectic Journeys.
2020 has been a tough year, probably the toughest for my generation and as an artist I still prefer to believe that life will change for better. The simplest joys of life need to be reminded and practiced everyday. Easy to say, hard to practice but through painting and drawing I perceive subtle moments of joy on every day life. Like an observer I see people around me and try to capture the joy in these instants that soon are swallowed by routine.