Like all children, I have always been curious about the world surrounding me, trying to see how plants, insects and animals looked closer, or from inside, whether using a microscope or dissecting them and making experiences to see what I could discover. Over time, this curiosity moved to visual expression and I started drawing and painting with oil and trying different visual techniques. As my mother used to be a copywriter at an advertising agency, I have always been in contact with illustrators, artists, art directors and other creative people, like photographers, video makers, sound producers and musicians.
At 14, I began studying musical theory and clarinet, which opened a new creative and sensorial world to me, in which I made new friends at the school of music and at the youth orchestra, taking part in music festivals and public concerts. Despite my dedication, after six years, I realized that music was not my talent and I decided to take the Economy course at the college. After four years, even though I tried hard, I could not foresee my future being an economist, so I started a new college, in Arts.
During these years, I took a few internships at advertising agencies, creative studios and art museums – including a short period as a sculptor`s assistant. In 1997 I had the opportunity to do a workshop with Piotr Kunce, a renowned poster designer from Poland, who became an inspiration about working with concepts in graphic design. In my senior year, I established a studio with a friend, where we developed mockups using modelling and sculpting techniques for a couple of clients. Two years later, we decided to split and I started developing an in-house project of an architectonic model for a local company.
Following the completion of this project, I joined Esmalglass-Itaca Group, a Spanish company in a southern city in Brazil, where I started my career as a surface ceramic tiles designer. There, together with the design work for our customers, I was involved in a couple of in-house projects that helped me becoming the company`s specialist in designing reliefs for ceramic tiles. My training also continued with research trips to Spain and Italy, including visiting international fairs in Europe.
During this time, I started a post-graduate specialization course in Fashion Design, Fashion Theory and Communication, in Brazil, which I later used to analyse the semiotic structural similarities between garment fashion design and the ceramic tiles industry, body and architectonic spaces, in the light of Post-Modernist theory.
Following the completion of this monograph, I applied for and received a scholarship to pursue my graduate studies in Japan: first at The University of Tokyo where, in the Department of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, I researched about Ecological and Cognitive Psychologies, and Emotional Design, with Professors Sasaki Masato and Okada Takeshi, both from the Department of Education.
After two years, I moved to Tama Art University (Tamabi) to do my Master course in print textile design under the guidance of Professor Takahashi Tadashi, where I continued until the end of my PhD program in Arts and Design, then under the guidance of Professors Kubota Akihiro, Motoe Kunio and Takahashi Tadashi.
Upon graduating from Japan in March 2013, I moved to Taiwan and, in September of the same year, I became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fashion Design of Shih Chien University, in Taipei. Upon finishing my 1-year contract, I became first a Lecturer, then an Assistant Professor at Fu-Jen Catholic University teaching, among other courses, Dyeing, Print and Pattern Design, with a focus on Surfaces, at the Department of Textiles and Clothing.
Since then, I have been invited to join group exhibitions in Taipei, giving workshops for disabled children in Taichung, teaching at the university, publishing papers about my research, creating new patterns for my brand Taniuba, and designing graphic projects for CDs and musical concerts for clients in Brazil.
