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Nilson Tavares was born in Goiana (PE). Always inquisitive, he found a way of life in clay. “I’ve worked with João do Boneco, brother of Zé do Carmo and then alone. Here in Tracunhaém, I carried on and started making saints. People came round to buy them. Sometimes I feel down because it’s hard to make a living from art. There are less people around, and the government isn’t helping tourism. But I’ve raised my family with my work.”
His sons, Nielson Ferreira Tavares and Natanaciel Ferreira Tavares, have helped their father since they were children and now sculpt, following in his footsteps. “Our work has the same classical style of Dad’s. The faces are thin, the fabric falls straight, without too much baroque decoration”, says Natanaciel, who had an education and is a teacher. “My father is illiterate, but he knows everything about clay and came up with a technique to fire larger pieces. I am a teacher, but all my life I’ve helped mould clay, and that’s what almost everyone lives off in Tracunhaém.” |
