Mask: the color terror | Retratos Defiças BR

No centro da pintura, sobre fundo preto, um personagem masculino, aparentemente não humano, é visto do peito para cima. Ele tem a metade direita do rosto coberto por uma máscara na cor dourada intensa, a outra metade cinza, parcialmente coberta por veias douradas, e o corpo cinza, com rachaduras em preto. Na cavidade ocular esquerda, dois olhos vermelhos, sobrepostos, sugerem movimento. Na boca, cinco camadas de dentes. Ele está com dois dedos sobre a parte dourada do rosto, escondendo quase todo o olho preto e morde um objeto cuja forma não se identifica, nas cores branco, vermelho e rosa, que aperta na mão esquerda. Da mordida escorre sangue vermelho sobre o objeto que morde. Da cabeça, saem feixes de luz como nuvens coloridas, numa forma arredondada para os lados, que afunila em cima. Junto à cabeça, os feixes de luz são vermelhos, sobem passando pelo verde e amarelo e chegam ao lilás e azul nas extremidades. À direita, em meio às luzes, um chifre preto.

Mask: Terror Colourized

This painting represents what chokes us. In imprisoned sensorial capacity, complex lost thoughts exist: the silence that suffocates, the word that doesn't come out. It is devastating being that which we are not, masking our beauty, normalizing behaviors, and dying tragically with emotions we could enjoy. This work is in itself, Terror Colourized, and reveals that behind the colours, many pains exist.

Co-creation: Daniel Nascimento and Flávia Neves

Technique: Digital Painting

Year: 2021

Itabuna - Bahia | Vila Velha - Espírito Santo | Brazil

Daniel Nascimento I am a 33 year-old white autistic man from a lower middle class family. Art has been part of my life since I was born. Since I was a child, I ventured into artistic expressions, such as writing, drawing, painting, and sculpture. I feel that I would not survive without this. As an autistic person, and with the psychosocial difficulties I have, art was my refuge. I can't measure how important it was and is in my life, because in the past I had no idea that I was autistic, and my disregulations and crises (which my drawings likely helped control/assist) were interpreted pejoratively and caused me to be more introspective and feel shame. Dealing with emotions has always been very difficult, and words are not enough to express everything I feel. My most expressive drawings have always been represented by strong and aggressive emotions, and due to this, they were very discouraged, criticized, and “corrected”, with the goal of forcing me to adjust to a more docile and servile expression. Now, I want to put myself out into the world as who I am, and I really wish that my talent could be my source of livelihood, because drawing is something I love and I feel can help other people, just as it has helped me to understand myself.

Flávia Neves I am a 31 year-old white autistic woman from a lower middle class family. I graduated in Language Studies at Federal University of Espirito Santo (UFES) in 2011. I only graduated because I had accessibility adaptations and was evaluated within my competencies, since my teachers knew that I didn't need a report for this. They saw that I was different and hard-working, but despite my efforts, I only developed in my own way (and very well, thank you!), so they adapted everything they could. Among my hyper focuses are the following subjects: disabilities, education, the human mind, women's and human rights studies, uses and applications of marijuana in healthcare, writing and editing. More specifically in the field of disabilities, I focus on autism, which is what brought me together with Daniel, also autistic and my accomplice in life - accomplice not only in understanding the condition, but in living it fully, not rejecting it, welcoming it. I think that welcoming is the word that unites us and defines us as a pair.