Têre Finger: Flores da Cunha, RS – 1961. “Art increasingly takes over my life and my daily routine. I embrace my body as an extension of my emotions. Even my clothes can speak; none are without paint—as if they were the artwork itself. Since childhood, I have wanted to paint the world in what I believe to be the best way: by spreading love. Today, I am certain of this: art is love. I can no longer separate the two; they are intertwined. My works—sometimes melancholic, sometimes joyful—are the fruit of my own nature, perhaps an inheritance from my maternal grandmother, who was herself by turns melancholic and joyful. I pour my expressive, and at times loving, side onto the canvas.

This blend of affections—love and spirituality—has always stirred me, compelling me to create as a way of revealing the human being I am. I do not know if the result fits the formal definition of art, but these works will be remembered as an act of love. For what is done with love never dies. I believe that an act of love regenerates the human spirit.”