Bio and ideas: an artist's vision

Welcome to Intangible Designs.

This website is an artist's portfolio and a source of commercial services related both to Illustration (encompassing graphic design and visual communication in a broad sense) and native English-Portuguese Translation services.

However, it is also a website that actively introduces and encourages some new concepts to guide the Creative Process: the Evolution-Oriented Art concept and the New Naturalist Awareness concept.

--> What is meant by the Evolution-Oriented Art concept?

Evolution-oriented art is an initiative to encourage the production of art and visual communication that is at once aware of its role in helping humanity to progress in its notions while consciously avoiding ideas that can be construed as misleading notions, those that are inverted in their sense of values or that only contribute to strengthen the sea of illusions we already live in. It is all about focusing our sight on something very much beyond advertising, institutional and corporate art as it has been. It is about using whatever technique we have honed as an ally, or a tool, in fulfilling yet another kind of mission, a mission guided by our best notions on the need to evolve spiritually, morally and materially as a consequence.

This concept was born from the perception that very little attention is given to Evolution when it comes to what we draw, create or conceive in art, music or text. Everywhere and on all levels, we can see that most artistic projects are unconcerned with proposing something uplifting and useful, preferring to settle in a comfortable but illusory niche of simple entertainment, escapist fun or even meaningless imageries that are, at best, a mere repetition of current notions and standards however pretty to look at or, at worst, a distortion of true human/spiritual values that contribute to leave things as they are and contaminate further any chance of us all experiencing something better and more worthwhile, after all, we may be spending most of our LIVES around such things and it can never be a good thing to waste so many opportunities for advancement.

In this context, Evolution, in its deeper and more real sense, is something beyond the usual notion of the Darwinian evolution of the species: it's about understanding that evolution occurs on all levels of existence, understanding therefore the consequences of our productions and making a conscious effort to improve the quality of the content and ideas our art promotes to shape the Future we really want by balancing the act between innovative, fine graphics, with fine closer-to-the-heart content. Ultimately, it's about falling in step with the path designed for us by the Life processes themselves. These life processes can be identified quite clearly and it is rather urgent that we do so at once.

If we consider that all forms of art bear the potential of affecting people's lives, it becomes clear that artistic freedom is not devoid of responsibility and limits as is the case with any other freedom. In this light, I believe more attention should be given to the element of progress in the contents of whatever is being conceived. Useful and fascinating ideas that promote the renewal of old concepts, brighter visions of the Future we want, intelligent and beautiful design applied to the common sense of tomorrow: these are much needed wares in a world of extremes in creativity, technical prowess and the use we make of our freedoms.

To be evolution-aware is not to simply be gratuituosly criticizing the world around us for its unhappy mistakes (quite the contrary actually, because this notion enables us to be much more understanding of the limitations we encounter) but also not to close our eyes to really understand the reasons behind each misconceived idea or intention and then focus our own efforts to improve what we can with what we may know at any given stage of our own evolution. An obvious belief, one might say, but nevertheless one that we rarely see finding its way into video, music, documentaries, art, corporate and so-called entertainment projects. With our feet on the grounds that be, to make a living, but our souls, hearts and minds focused on an Evolution-oriented creativity, we as Illustrators and Graphic Artists, can gradually come to offer a different brand of communication arts. Progress means leaving behind medieval ideas but it also means avoiding some easy bizarre notions of today, both of which, have little to offer in terms of an avenue into a brighter, fairer Future for everyone. We are missing the golden opportunity to use art, music, text and video productions to enrich our lives and broaden our own notions if we choose to waste so much time on senseless pursuits that lock us ever deeper into illusion and contribute to the dissemination of more distractions of what really matters. Endless distractions are really a problem if equated on a global scale and if 'hard-wired' into the fabric of modern families. This is something that really demands immediate action on our part regarding the reevaluation of the personal universe our lives revolve around and therefore the foreseeable consequences using just common sense.

--> And what about this New Naturalist something?

The other concept, New Naturalist Awareness follows in the footsteps of this progress-oriented vision as one of the most recent practical applications of the ideas put forth above and is an invitation to broaden the field of traditional Naturalism into more real causes and workings in Nature with an enlightening effort that must eventually open our minds and hearts to a greater portion of this phenomenon we got used to calling Reality. Understanding our Universe and our role in it on a much deeper level, is a commitment and a mission we cannot afford to be unaware of or still laugh at. The price to be paid in the end is too high, believe me. From the beginning, I always felt that the figure of the Naturalist as the professional or amateur that goes about gathering fragments of wildlife, such as bones, shrubs and insects and so forth, was something that fascinated and exerted a strong attraction on me as a youth, for it brought me closer to home in a world of contradictions and cold individual interests, made me feel closer to being here as opposed to just existing and then turn my attention to just go bustling through life to get things done. It brought me closer to the meaning of life here in the first place.


Even so, I soon felt that traditional naturalist notions were seriously outdated as it only considered the material world or the external phenomenon of reality (or the effect) and rarely its inner workings (the cause). My background is that of an Illustrator and lacks the specialized knowledge of a biologist, an anthropologist or naturalist in the academic sense. However my background does include some information on the spiritual side of life and it is never enough to bear in mind that this side is the origin or cause, while the material side is the partial, the crudest part, or the effect. Illustration, graphic design, painting, photography and music and even text are the means of giving form and substance to the almost intangible forces behind everyday life. iD Studio proposes to address such matters in the only way it can: by endeavoring to create graphics, both in colour and black & white that can really inspire others in this new path of Self-Realization and Awareness.

The New Naturalist Awareness idea is then a graphic design effort that was devised to hopefully encourage people to Understand, Educate and Inspire a new generation of naturalists or anyone on the path to self-realization to reestablish a living connection with the environment and Life processes and how we relate to these. On the cover of the 2006-2007 Calendars I have designed it says: "To forge ahead and rebuild our notions" and "Beyond Matter is What Matters". I think that is significant enough.

--> A conclusion, if you please:

This website is also an invitation for us all to discuss and come up with projects that can be in such diverse fields of interest as: software development, Naturalist design, innovative children's materials, game design, humanitarian and global concerns and scientific/spiritualist breakthroughs, to mention some, aligned as closely as possible to those concepts, for a legitimate use of our talents in benefit of others.

Nothing is ever "finished", so to speak. That means, if I have achieved anything worthwhile so far, it is mostly to remind me that so much more is yet left to be learned and, most importantly, done, in the never-ending effort-in-progress of overcoming my own limitations.

Your stay at this site is meant to be extremely pleasant and meaningful, so take some time to explore and feel the Universe it revolves around and maybe, somewhere, some new, rewarding connection might be made for the both of us.

Welcome again.

A story you might want to read: Where it all began

My formal training as an artist began 1n 1975 but did not include any contact with Naturalist art in any form as all this is nonexistent as a career option in my country, Brazil. After 3 years of Editorial Illustration and Design training I called it quits and left, but even this was hardly enough to get over the basics and the years that followed saw me doing my very best to fill in the information gaps in art training, learn the trade and get myself some half-blind assignments.

Brazil is a great country but it does have many shortcomings: one is the greatly overlooked formal training in art one can hope to get in any school, especially back in 1975. Another part is related to the assignments and real-world jobs that you can find after you leave school. Most of these are limited to what the current trends dictate and anything out of this is not really seen as an option, unless if you are willing to resign yourself to handicraft or abstract painting such as plastic arts or something. What my heart desired though was something very different and I gradually understood that I would have to create a niche for myself if I wanted to do anything else but advertising or corporate art.

All this was very unsettling for a young artist that wanted to do something else, something meaningful, and make a living. Normal commercial assignments were the reality though, as in most countries for a beginner and for more than two decades I did a little of everything in Illustration, all the while developing the foundations of the naturalist art you now see in this website. iD Studio has been in existence for 31 years. I hope that means something.

Naturalist Art. This was always a new idea as far as I was concerned because I intended to develop design with a spiritual content and this kind of Illustration would never be to me the kind you find in animal books, biology science textbooks or ecological art as we know it since ecology became a fad in the late seventies. Hopefully, others would see that too, I thought, never letting up on some hope that there are people who can empathize with these feelings.

When you take your time to peruse this site, you will see the enormous scope to which these interests are connected and will get more than a glimpse of what others have been doing, especially in the powerful fields of discoveries regarding energies, elemental intelligence in nature, physics and many other fascinating parts of life. iD Studio is deeply interested in Biodynamics in agriculture, Sound wave treatments for the soil, Communication with the Elemental Intelligence in nature, True Organic farming and produce, Radionics, Inner Earth research and Design applied to all this, just to mention the topmost subjects.

So, take your time, leave your comments and find a way to contribute to a world in need for the times are more than ripe for all this to come about as the moment we live now is truly unique in the history of this world and the changes that are coming are for good. It's all a matter of what we want to do: to watch idly and be excluded in the end or to fire up your soul's potential and get going with whatever it is we are supposed to do.

Greetings.

Related links within this website:
. Esssential Knowledge Vault - Pilot Project in Portuguese with some parts in English
. iD Forum (coming soon)