As a young boy, his favourite toy was a pair of scissors. He would cut up sheets of paper into stars, birds, butterflies and whatever else his imagination came up with. He enjoyed getting a pencil and drawing. He didn’t have an art teacher until he started working in a furniture factory and got to know the different tools and kinds of wood.
Then, at 17, Tinho (José Alberto L. de Souza) started thinking about sculpting. He already made woodcarvings. “I didn’t know anyone in Manacapuru who made a living from drawing and painting but I knew several who lived from woodcarving”, he says remembering the importance of the Pires brothers.
Today, at 30, he is very critical. “I want to show reality which is a bit difficult because I find it hard to come across pictures of plants and animals.”
Tinho knows one thing for sure. What he really enjoys is carving. “I can create more. I make a drawing and then carve it, turning the tree leaves this way and that, seeing the vines twisting. That’s important, because I carve everything on a single wooden board. The final picture is three-dimensional. So I must have everything thought out in order to create movement.”