Who Am I?

 In order to start researching about other artists, first we had to research about ourselves - reflect in the question "Who am I?". We did an exercise in class in which we had to draw/represent ourselves and what defines us. And this was the outcome:

My feet:

My history starts in my feet - my foundation. I was born in Madeira Island, Portugal. I grew near the beach so I feel like it is part of me. The pattern represents my culture, which I can say for sure that influenced me a lot and he rose represents my first school. It really marked me, I went to that school since I was 4 untill I was 15. In there I learned for the first time the meaning of the word "friends".

Legs, belly and neck:

I started to play piano when I was 5 years old and it really marked my life. I had lessons my whole life and my teachers truly believed in me and expected a bright future for me in music. My piano teacher was like family to me and it was in her classroom that I studied the most even if it was for school subject. I thought about studying music in the university but apparently destiny had other plans for me . Everything in my life changed when I got injured and I had to give up from my piano lessons as well from volleyball, which was also something really important in my life. Nowadays I am starting to play volleyball again but I still feel pain very often. The feeling of not being able to do what I love the most had a huge impact in me. For a long time I was not happy at all, however I always had the support of my family and my childhood friends, who were the family that I chose, and they helped me to pass through that dark time. That was the time when I started to take drawing very seriously and studying really hard. I knew that my pathway was in Art and I was not giving up easily. The 20's in my neck represent the necessity that I felt of always having the higher marks possible (which in my country was 20) and how sometimes I felt suffocated with this need that I had. It made me very anxious, stressed, insecure and unhappy but my teachers (as well as my family and friends) always supported me a lot and more than teachers most of them became friends for me. I learned a lot from them and I can say for sure that they were one of the main reasons that I fell in love with art.

My right arm:

Although during the day I look a happy person (my friends used to say that I was like a sunshine and that is impossible not to smile around me), during the night it is a different story. During this last year I lost my two grandparents, one in July and the other in November - one week after I had come back home - in that time my family said to me that he was waiting for me to die peacefully. This sense of lost has really marked me, and I still feel broken inside but music and art have always help me even if it is only to help me fall asleep. By the time everything happened, I had a friend very dear to me, who is currently living in France. He realized what was happening to me and helped me while I was griefing. Even though we are distant now, it is thanks to him that I am not in a bad place mentally right now.

My heart and chest:

In my heart there is a japanese symbol that means family. Family is everything to me, and it's thanks to them that I am who I am. Therefore I had to put them in my heart. I love them unconditionally and all I want is to make them happy. Near to my heart are my best friends, which I only met three years ago but that I already don't know how to live without them. They were the best thing that ever happened to me and I am very grateful for our friendship. They have always been there for me and I couldn't ask for better people to share my hapiness with.

I believe that everything happens for a reason and that right now I am only being tested by destiny. I have grown a lot in the past few years and for that reason I don't regret anything. I know that I have people who love me and that will always be there for me. And these are the same people who made me who I am. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said “Those who pass by us, do not go alone, and do not leave us alone; they leave a bit of themselves, and take a little of us.” and I couldn't agree more.