I found myself debating whether I should dedicate the little spare time I had to art or to doing my Portuguese grammar homework, when the solution became obvious, “Grammart”. I have already used a lot of the odd leftover objects in this house for the parallel project. This time a lampshade and a pitcher stood out as perfect supports for my grammar homework. The idea is to merge old items from the house with something personal and present, like my struggle with Portuguese grammar.

This is the result after some hours of homework, enhanced by some scribbles by my granddaughter.
This piece can be strategically placed as a flower vase and allow me to cast quick secret glimpses on the rules during a conversation in Portuguese.
It was an obvious and simple idea, but I am happy with the result. I think the scribbles add a clearly contemporary style to the object, whereas the shape and the rusty signs of ageing are clearly from another time, so the merging of different stories work well here.
For the lampshade, I try my hand at embroidering.

I am a beginner at embroidering, but instead of trying to be neat and look more expert, I am exaggerating my clumsiness. I want the beginners look of the embroidery to reflect my beginners mind with the Portuguese language. Also the lampshade already has machine made embroidered flowers and I want the handmade imperfections to contrast with the machine made and uniform shapes.
The very useful phrase “O gate tem uma chave”, meaning “the cat has a key” was automatically created by the language learning platform, and I just love the absurdity of it.
I chose to keep the piece monochrome and rather spacious and believe the balance between the existing pattern and the embroidered words work well. Also it is again a very clear contrast between different worlds that reflect the gap between the history of the house and what we bring to it.










