Alma Fogo - Mural
Hand Painted Lettering Mural

My creative process always begins with a set of words that challenge me. In this case the starting point was a verse from the poem "Tanto de meu estado me acho incerto" by Luís de Camões - "Da alma um fogo me sai me da vista um rio".

I found in the text a constant tension created by the opposition of the words 'fire' and 'river'. I designed a composition that referenced each element and overlapped them. The position and colour of each moment represent the two keywords 'Fire' and 'River'. Fire, in warm tones and with vertical lettering, and River, in cool tones and horizontally.

By coincidence, the week I painted this wall there was a heat wave. Some big fires, lots of heat, and the proximity to the Tagus River created a curious proximity to the words.