Flaviana Quixito de Sousa

Metamorphosis 

At the heart of my project is the theme of metamorphosis.  During the Covid19 pandemic people have been affected in different ways when self-isolating and personally I had to adapt my creative life indoors. I have explored the roller coaster of changing emotions for me and my family through my specialist pathways of photography and visual communications.  

My work is a series of A3 digital portraits, and illustrations in oil pastel that express themselves as stories of change from my perspective of feelings in the home. I used different techniques and materials to communicate the changes we were experiencing by creating a life-size, 3D wearable sculpture using cardboard and other everyday materials and accessories. 

My love of photography came at very early age. Consequently, I started to report everything happening around me and my family to fill the gap of having no photographs from my childhood. I was influenced by the studio-based photography of Andreina Silva who creates different characters transforming her models through the illusion of appearance, persona and surroundings.  

Illustrators whose practice is based on the domestic interior such as John Porcellino, Julia Wertz and Adrian Tomine also inspired me.  My love of make-up influenced me as I experimented with my family; creating characters my daughters and pretending they were ‘proper’ models. 

I used my digital SLR camera to create a series of photographs of my family and edited them in Photoshop using filters, exposure and a vibrant colour palette. Through my drawings I explored my ideas of metamorphosis as each portrait emerged using the visual language of line, shape, texture, colour and pattern.