Paulo Paulino Guajajara

This is my painting of Paulo Paulino Guajajara. He was a forest defender in the Amazonas at the Araribóia Indigenous territory. He was shot in his head on Friday, 1 November 2019.

Amazonas in Brazil has 672 indigenous territories. These areas are supposed to be free from loggers, miners, and settlers. Since Bolsonaro came to power, there have been more illegal invasions of indigenous territories.

News like this about the death of Paulo comes like a little tiny blip in the news system in the rest of the world.

I noticed the image of Paulo Paulino. It was an amazing photo. The light came from under. This is a strong man. A proud man.

It is not good that the fate of Paolo is a blip on the world news arena. For this sake, I decided to honor Paulo in such a way that I made a portrait of him. I panted him with a pitch-black background. That was difficult to make. I used Paynes Gray and Neutral (Black) and mixed these. There is a border around the portrait so that I could make an extra feature at the bottom of the portrait.

Here is how I let that paint drip off the painting.