Ariana Tavares is a Brazilian architect and emerging artist who now calls New York City home. Her cultural and artistic background is reflected in her artworks, deeply inspired by the colors and shapes from Brazil’s countryside landscape and natural features and by the architecture of New York City.
“My goal is to use my Brazilian background, creativity, and fun to inspire and bring joy to people’s lives through simplicity and brightness.” says Ariana. To achieve this, she works in different medium, drawing and painting with ink, color pencil, watercolor, gouache, acrylic and oil paints. She has also “started to make digital illustrations, for me it’s always fun to learn a new skill.”
I have a special fondness for her Tropical series and New York townhouses series. Thanks Ariana for sharing about your art with me.
Tell us about your art and your artistic path.
As a kid in Brazil, I loved drawing and coloring books. I’ve always been artsy and creative, but only at 17 years old, I took my first drawing class with an artist at her studio. Those classes taught me for the first time to observe something, to pause, and take close look on whatever I was drawing. Even though I attended architecture college, I had art disciplines there, like art history, drawing, and sculpting.
Right after graduating, I realized that I was more interested in art than architecture, so I decided to take some drawing and painting classes to learn new skills and level up those I already had. During that time I started to make art consistently and chose to become a professional artist.
In 2017, me, my husband and our dogs moved from São Paulo, Brazil to New York City, because he got a job offer here. In the first months living in the U.S., I made art almost daily, set up my website, and also took some watercolor and acrylic classes. In 2018 I had the opportunity to show some of my artworks in two pop up art events in the city, and since then, I continued to focus on my career and kept doing the work.
What is your goal/ message/ statement with your artwork?
My goal is to use my Brazilian background, creativity, and fun to inspire and bring joy to people’s lives through simplicity and brightness. The drawings and paintings created lately are an attempt to represent the nostalgic feeling of Brazil’s abundant nature, culture, and society. Its mix of landscapes, such as the rainforest and Atlantic forest, and the blend of indigenous, Iberian and African cultures, are some of the elements that are imprinted in my artistic perspective.
You work in different mediums and through different series. Can you share your inspiration? Do you go from one series to the other or are they ongoing?
I make art about what is inspiring me at the moment, and I work from one series to the other, as my interests are always changing and evolving. The series are kind of a diary of what’s going on in my life, ranging from a remarkable trip to Bolivia to the townhouses in NYC to missing my home country. At the moment, I’m really into tropical plants as a way to express my love for Brazil’s nature and culture. In addition to that, architecture and women inspire me immensely.
What are your projects for the coming months/ year?
Because of COVID-19, I had to adapt some of the plans I had for this year, but thankfully I’m busy with some commissioned paintings. I’m also learning to use Procreate and started to make digital illustrations, for me it’s always fun to learn a new skill. Finally, I’d love to attend an art residency when the pandemic is over.
What is your dream project?
To have my first show in NYC!
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