This edition, we have interviewed the lower and upper school art teacher, Mrs. Marcia Vicentini. Mrs. Marcia spent 10 years at the Gávea campus and 11 at the Barra Campus, 21 years at EARJ in total! In this interview, we will find out more about Mrs. Marcia’s story.
Image Source: Ms. Márcia
PP: What is your favorite thing about EARJ?
MV: Here we have the chance to meet people all over the world and be surrounded by young people. It is amazing to have the chance to impact the life of young people and inspire them to become the best versions of themselves. I think that the best part here is that I love my students, and they are completely different from the other students I had at Brazilian schools. They were nice but at EARJ, we have more time together and we are not just focusing on grades, it's more about the process of learning and the process of changing our perspectives of the world.
PP: What inspired you to become an art teacher?
MV: My passion. I was passionate about great artists and great works that I still didn't have the chance to visit, especially Italian artists such as Michelangelo, who is my favorite. The first time I went to Italy, I was completely in love with all the art. Since then, I have decided that I want to work with arts.
PP: What is your favorite thing to do during your free time?
MV: I love to cook and to create new recipes. I love working with my family recipes and keeping the memories of my family through the food I used to eat when I was a child. I like to keep the traditions of the family by cooking because I don't want my kids to forget about the roots. Cooking is a way to keep memories forever.
PP: Do you have any pets? If not, would you like one?
MV: I have two adopted dogs, Laika and Max. I don’t like to buy animals because I think they are friends and you can never buy a friend. There are many animals suffering because they don’t have a person to take care of them, while many people take advantage of them to make money. Thus, I really don't like to buy pets because some people force pets to have babies to make a lot of profit out of them, and encourage people to buy them just because they are fancy and expensive. That’s why I would like to see more people adopting.
PP: What is your favorite place to travel to?
MV: Rome. Everytime I go to Rome I discover new places, new arts, new historical sights, so it always feels like I am there for the first time. It is beautiful and I think that the history of European culture is present there, and for Brazilians, our roots are found in Europe – it is a part of who we are. I think that it is important to understand Italy, the Roman Empire and other historical events to learn about how we became who we are, so this is also a big part of self discovery.
PP: Do you have a favorite museum? If so, which one is it?
MV: I have many favorite museums because I think a museum is not easy to understand the first time you go. There are iconic museums everywhere! But the first museum that touched my life was the Van Gough museum in Amsterdam. The reason I chose this one is because of the simplicity, he painted and all the potato eating paintings other artists wouldn't paint because they were poor. I realized that Vincent Van Gough was so sensitive about the suffering people had when facing poverty, and this allowed me to understand more about him. His paintings weren't because he didn't have anything else to do, instead, he wanted to create those art pieces to make people be in the shoes of the peasants, the poor ones, the ones people really do not pay attention to. So the first time I went to the museum, I cried because I was not expecting the art. We as humans mostly try to see the positive, colorful art pieces unlike Van Gough, whose art depicts real situations – poor people just eating potato soup as a feast, and this made me think about his humanity.
PP: Last but not least, Who are your 3 most favorite artists?
MV: Vincent van Gogh, Michelangelo, and Botticelli. Botticelli because I think he created masterpieces that are huge and beautiful. Every time you see the art, you feel like you are out of this planet because he puts beauty in colors, movements and lines. Everything there really inspired me to look at things in a different perspective. In Florence, if you go to Galleria Degli Uffizi, you can see TheSpring and The Birth of Venus. There you will not know where to look; when I went there, the art gave me goosebumps. The photos I took are amazing, how can a human be so talented to create such beautiful masterpieces?
Image Source: Lorena Alves
“There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
― Vincent Van Gogh
Ms Marcia is a school icon!