| At 83 years old and recovering from an operation, Mr. Ademar Zeferino de Melo complains about having to keep still. He misses clay and his workbench. He asks his son, Sérgio, who has also started moulding clay, to give him some of the material that he is able to bring to life. Born in São José he remembers making toys and figurines as a child, to play with. His was a family of potters and figurine makers, and talent runs in Ademar’s veins. “When I’m lying down an idea comes to me and I know what I’m going to make. I portray everything I see around me. It takes a lot of patience to get things right. I didn’t have a picture of my parents, so one day I moulded them in clay, as I remembered them, and now I have the image to remember them by.” Inevitably, he works with local themes. Chickens, fishermen, festivals such as the Holy Ghost and the Boi-de-Mamão, Azorean women and whatever else he sees before him. |
