"Influx" and Thanksgiving | Art from the heart.

Being from South Africa, and now living in Brazil, I have never really celebrated American holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. But because I work at Influx, an English school here (in my opinion, the English school), where quite a lot of American culture is integrated into the teaching material, I have experienced a little bit of what it might feel like, because included in the curriculum are fun events held for the kids, such as the yearly Halloween party.

This year though, for the first time, they held a Thanksgiving evening for the staff and any students who wished to participate.

So, this post is about Influx (the school), my first real Thanksgiving, and Influx (the art).

I don't do a lot of sharing in these posts, usually, so be prepared.. 😉

A few things you all may not know about me: I live in Brazil, have been for almost 9 years, only 5 of those legally. I teach English for a living, mostly to adults. And up until recently, I never really stayed in a job for too long. I'd either get extremely bored or highly annoyed with/tired of my employers.

This changed, as I have discovered, with my current job, where I have been teaching English for 42 months now, a record for me (previous job: 21 months).

There are many reasons for my staying so long with Influx, but the main thing is this: My employers are more than just employers. They, together with my colleagues, have become a kind of family. Something I have never experienced before. Julia and Danilo, the school owners, truly care about their staff and go out of their way to make sure we all know it. They share with us their personal trials and triumphs and encourage us to do the same. They are 100% approachable. We all know that if we need anything, we can count on them - whether it be work-related or not.

All of this came to a head this year when a problem came up and, after speaking to Julia and Danilo, that something was resolved. They actually changed school policy in order to help me (and other teachers).

So for about 4 weeks, I've been brewing up a way to say thank you. I started on "Influx" with the intent of presenting it to Julia on the 14th of December - the day we have our end-of-year dinner party. But then I found out about the Thanksgiving dinner event - how perfect! 🙂

And so, last night, after drinking some liquid courage, (red, white and sparkling wine), I gave a very brief speech of thanks when it was my turn, and then surprised Julia with the artwork. And surprised she was! 😁 .. I will admit that I think perhaps my own pleasure in surprising someone this way might be half the motivation behind doing it.

After that, we all ate, drank and were merry 😊 😋 ... With traditional Thanksgiving food like carrot sticks, brazed corn, mashed potatoes, pumpkin soup, turkey, pumpkin pie and of course, apple pie!

Anyway... After that very long prologue, here is the artwork:

"Influx"

Size: 50cm x 50cm

I didn't save any progress pictures but I did take quite a few pictures while it was printing, and even a video =) so I'll share some of this with you.

First, this is the studio I printed it at. They are certified with Hahnemühle paper, which is the paper I used (Photo Rag Ultra Smooth):

The printer, one of two beautiful machines they have:

The professional Marcos Ferraz, at work:

And here is the machine, doing its thing. It's beautiful to watch:

Plus, it comes with a Certificate of Authenticity:

Lastly, here I am with my two amazing bosses, husband and wife team, Julia and Danilo, with their new artwork:

Once again, thank you very much Julia and Danilo, for everything you do and have done. 💚💙