The Decolife Lion Den
I've always been interest in Lions, I loved going to the circus as a kid back in Brazil to see the clowns and the wild beasts. I stopped enjoying the circus due to the animal cruelty around. Later I got interested in art history and fell in love with the lions in artworks from all over the world and across thousands of years, found in different cultures and traditions.
In 2010 I started painting my own lions on walls, papers and canvases, experimenting and trying to find my own lion style. A few years later I got interested in Hieronymus Bosch (including some interesting lions painted by him), Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” and “The Sleeping Gypsy” which have lions in their composition. I researched more in art history, and visited the main museums around Europe and UK experiencing historical masterpieces and letting them influence me.
The Lion-Human by Hohlenstein-Stadel, a prehistoric ivory sculpture from around 37 thousand years ago, is one of the oldest-known examples of an artistic representation and the oldest confirmed statue ever discovered.
Ancient lion representations in art were found in the Chauvet Cave and in Lascaux in France dating from tens of thousands of years ago, about which very little is known. Lions typically made of stone were introduced to Han China as the protector of dharma following the Buddhist tradition a few hundred years BCE, this gave birth to new traditions and kept evil spirits away.
There is a ‘Lion Hunt Palette’ that I saw at the Louvre Museum in 2012, which dates from 3100 BCE. Interestingly enough there is a part of that same piece at the British Museum that I saw years later and instantly made the connection between the two pieces.
Some childhood memories started coming from "The lion hunter" by Manet that I had seen in a museum in Sao Paulo and school books. This brought back my interest in the French impressionists who expanded my mind away from Religious St. Mark Lion’s and Daniel in the lion's den stories. Also, there is enough of the Heraldry lion representations from the middle ages in flags, coats and gates, that I like to observe, sketching with an idea and move them forward to the next step. I wanted to make something unique and find my own meaning in the lions I was creating. In 2013 I started painting lions again, with a new substance, in the streets and on a small acrylic on board that got sold in Istanbul at the 'Mind the Gap' exhibition in the same year.
After years of painting them in the streets of London, I got an ‘urban identity’ doing individual lions in my own style experimenting with different techniques. The solo Exhibition ‘As Above So Below’ in 2018 had Lion in the composition of the main paintings. Part of that show included a ‘Lion mask’ created in a helmet style that visitors could put on and interact with, resembling the Lion-Human of Hohlenstein- Stadel and adding my own meaning into it, which was a symbol of Victory and Strength celebrating 5 years away from the homeless period and rough sleeping in London.
In 2020 I heard about NFTs and started paying more attention to crypto. I was doing great with my physical artworks exhibiting in group shows, art fairs and many other projects around, I considered joining NFTs but wasn’t sure if it would be a progress if I invested my time creating ‘Jpeg art’ instead. After months of observing web3 I understood the impact it is having and will have in society. I had no doubt that it is the future and decided to jump all in!
My first NFT Drop was late March 2022, 'The Decolife Collection' is the one with my favourite inspirations such as day to day life, mental health, street art, chess, moyu/rubik's cube, skulls, sacred geometry, science, homelessness, also containing the ‘Full abstract’ pieces as the canvases I love painting, and of course Lion NFTs living a life by their own in the blockchain embracing unique properties while I explore new territories in creating digital art. Every piece is 1of 1 hand drawn on iPad Procreate.
Lion NFTs part of the Decolife Collection:
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More information on Decolife NFTs:
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