During the Artists' Residency with Gemma and Bee, we talked a lot about how the creative process is different for each of us and we also observed how crafting and arts create a fertile ground and space for deeper connections to root and eventually blossom. I chose to bring together personal friends of mine, dear people who don't necessarily know each other, but who already are my support and affection network here in Berlin. Food for me was also always a place for connection: Sharing good food brings people together. I’m always cooking for friends, as it’s also a way to celebrate my culture.

Since all of the guests are personal friends of mine, all of them already knew about the residency and were interested about it, so they were posted on some of my experiences in the Residency. I invited them about a month ago and we’ve been rooting together, so it was a day that all of us were looking forward to.

Something that I have been noticing during my experiences with workshops is that usually adults get more shy on trying to draw for the first time, maybe because they’re too worried about how the result is gonna look like. Kids tend to explore more, they enjoy the experience of it, because they use their intuition more instead of logic. Intuitive painting it’s something I started to do within the residency even without knowing it.

It’s very scary sometimes, to do things for the first time because it can be terrifying: you don’t know what to expect and how to prepare for it. But with intuitive painting, that’s the thrilling part. When you are open to the experience itself instead of focusing on the idea to produce always, and always produce beautiful things, and you can let go of the pressure, the results are much more genuines. For instance, as I already knew the guests personally, I could observe pictures of their personalities in the drawings: Methodic people painting with precision, dancers painting with broad movements of the arm, researchers and activists painting detailed figures with many different colors.

In my case, the workshop started much before we touched the brushes: I made some delicious Brazilian food called Feijoada, and we could start getting to know each other earlier, so when the painting started itself, we already had the first connection, so the space for the connections to arise was already settled. Sharing food with my friends at my home, and being able to bring them all together to understand more of themselves was really magic, and the magic will still happen as long as we keep open to it. Sometimes you just have to look in a different angle.

I hope that all of the process I’ve been sharing has brought you something new, maybe a spark for you to try something new or to rethink that old fashioned idea we can have about the world. Living in society is crazy, being a person in this world is crazy, but we don’t need to do it alone, and it definitely doesn’t need to be as boring as it seems. Create safe spaces for you to exist, follow your intuition and art is gonna guide you through it.