Tita do Rêgo Silva, Germany

Memories of growing up as one of seven children in a small town inspire my art. Though materially poor, Caxias in Brazil’s Maranhão State was culturally rich.

While I studied woodcut making in university, my artistic life really began with a one-year scholarship that took me to Hamburg. Life, however, kept me here much longer than planned—I married a German man, gave birth to my son Luis, and still live here.

Living so far from Brazil made me become more Brazilian than ever. I explored my indigenous, African, and European roots. Childhood memories of cartoons, cave paintings, and sacred art re-surfaced. My earlier realistic, monochromatic woodcuts morphed into the simpler, colorful human-animal hybrid creatures that now define my personal style.

Viewers often make up stories to explain my whimsical characters. I invite you to invent a few of your own.