, "Seu Latif Bar"

"My passion for the woodcut began in a free course in 1979 in the university's School of Fine Arts. I worked as an economist in Brasilia and specialized in public planning. We were part of the Ministry's general planning offices and I taught courses together with the World Bank, but I always reserved a space for art as a very special endeavor.

"In 1994, after hiking the entire course of the Caminho de Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, I made an important decision – to change my lifestyle radically. I retired and became devoted exclusively to the woodcut.

"My work is easy to read because it is, above all, figurative. Nature is my great teacher because it teaches us everything about aesthetics. A print takes at least some two months to be ready. I always begin with drawings outdoors where I register the chosen theme and, soon afterwards, I elaborate the print matrix in wood. At one time, after taking a course in color theory taught by Ligia Saboya de Freitas, my woodcuts passed from strictly black and white to an explosion in colors. I was totally fascinated by the methods used to engrave color, extremely difficult, and I was determined to master the technique as the method was developed by Pablo Picasso. My subject matter also diversified. Today, sacred themes are present in my work. Actually, I focus on spirituality, scenes of daily life that I make a social chronicle, and eroticism, a celebration of life itself. The basis for this content lies in my faith in the viability of the human being and in the hope that we evolve for a better world.

"I've participated in innumerable solo and collective exhibits throughout my career, among them 'Brazil 2000' in St. Louis, USA."