A visiting artist remarked in passing this week: “You know, one of these days you will run out of artists to write about”…
Up until now, it is true, we have been writing about a group of people with an average age of well over 50 (and that is being diplomatic).
Of the 30 or so artists interviewed since re-launching the website this Spring, only three are under the age of 40…
What does this tell us about the future for art and culture in Portugal?
At very best, it shows that we have to dig deep to find and encourage younger artists. Artists like Alota Ribeiro, who works nine hours-a-day, six days-a-week as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant in Guia’s Algarveshopping, in order to have one delicious free day in which to indulge in her total passion for painting and drawing.
Aged just 26, Alota moved to the Algarve from the north a year ago. She has exhibited with Arte Algarve ever since. People love her work. A couple came in one day, spent hours deciding over the selection of Alota’s canvases, and finally left with three to take home with them to Holland.
“I have been very lucky”, she talks over the telephone. “Every exhibition I have been involved with has been a positive experience. It means a lot to me; helps me a great deal”.
“Often I paint long into the night, and then I have to get up early and work another shift – but it has to be this way for now. Sadly, I need this job to live”.
We were due to meet at the gallery but Alota’s kitchen shifts were changed suddenly and she had no time.
“I had been looking forward to this chance so much”, she told us, rather touchingly.
Even in a telephone conversation, it is easy to feel this is an unusually strong striving artist.
Her message to young people in similar situations was spontaneous: “Never give up. Don’t listen to people telling you about the crisis and how no one will buy your work. Believe in yourself and wake up every day ready to do your best. Follow your dream”.
“I believe I will succeed. If I didn’t believe, life would make no sense at all”, she considers.
Poignantly, when asked to define her paintings, Alota says they show everything that she doesn’t have in day-to-day life: tranquility, sensitivity, the feeling of self-fulfillment.
In her blog, she lists her interests as: maintaining some stability with society; understanding this society; integrating myself into this society; resisting this society; living intensely,,,
Words of youth, and hope.
So where is her work going these days, we wonder? “I have returned to portraits. I tried to get away from them, bring more movement into my work, but I have returned for the moment – this time with more sensitivity. I am trying to convey the quality of silence – not just tranquility. And smell; fragrance”.
Considering she spends a huge part of her life in the echoing maelstrom of the food hall at Algarveshopping, it is hardly surprising that Alota seeks silence, tranquility and fragrance.
We just have to wish her well in these early exhausting days, and hope that soon she finds more time to develop her passion and undeniable talent.
You can also keep up with her on facebook, and via her blog: http://alotaribeiro.blogspot.pt/
Written by Natasha Donn
