The People That Surround Us

By Sofia

"Between your 'ums' and 'ahs,' you breathe words of wisdom that I long forge as part of my identity through the intertwining twigs and branches of our family you fall as my cousin, but I see you as so much more than that. Someone I look up to, a mentor, an icon, and anything in between."

Sofia: Between your "ums" and "ahs," you breathe words of wisdom that I long forge as part of my identity through the intertwining twigs and branches of our family you fall as my cousin, but I see you as so much more than that. Someone I look up to, a mentor, an icon, and anything in between.

Would you care to introduce yourself and like what our connections are?

Yuli: I'm Brazilian and a visual artist. We are like second-degree cousins, so... we are third-degree cousins, I think. Because Tomi, your mother, is my second-degree cousin. So I think we are, like, a third-degree cousin? I don't know.

Sofia: Definitely somewhere around there—

Yuli: I have no idea. But we are familiar. We're family.

Sofia: So, my first question is, do the people around you affect your identity in any way?

Yuli: At the beginning of my social life, like teenage-hood, maybe I had some struggles to get more in touch with society. I grew up in a very... oppressioned environment at my school. So I was kind of very shy, and... like, I didn't have like a uh, identity, I think. Like, uh, my identity was maybe related to drawings or with more kind of, imagination than experienced society by itself.

Sofia: Did anyone in the family in particular shape your view on art or did you have to find that yourself?

Yuli: My family themselves, they don't really understand much what I'm doing, so I think, like, they didn't took me out of my way, but like they said, like, “Yeah, go for it.” But the, without many involvement on it. So more or less yes, but I think it was more like, “Do yourself” than, “No, let's study together, let's go to the museum.” I was like, going by myself through comic books and anime and animations. But uh, yeah, I think it, it's don't get like, included in your, in your creative process maybe the way to, to develop it too.

Sofia: And now that you travel do you find your own chosen family in the places that you travel? Do they understand your subconscious type of art?

Yuli: Yes. Sometimes, cause now, it's crazy because we thinking about that we are very unique, and we are, but we are also have many connections, like traumas and desires. So, there is this kind of common background in my work.

Sofia: Yes. Sometimes, cause now, it's crazy because we thinking about that we are very unique, and we are, but we are also have many connections, like traumas and desires. So, there is this kind of common background in my work.