Marcia Svartman

My name is Marcia Svartman, and I am a Brazilian artist living and working in Rio De Janeiro.

I worked as an architect until three years ago. I graduated as a Fashion Designer and now work as a costume designer for movies and TV, and at the same time, develop my paintings on fabric.

I have been painting since an early age. I have also done a lot of printmaking on wood, metal, and stone. I lived for seven years in the US while my husband was doing research, and I really enjoyed my years at Memphis Academy of Arts where I was majoring in Graphics (great classes with Mr. Ruffo, Tibbets, and Fayers...)

Ten years ago I began to paint fabrics, mostly silk. I paint for fashion, home decor, and as fine arts.

I belong to a group of ten Brazilian silk artists. Our goal is to gain respect for silk, not only as a craft, but as a creative art medium. We have had many exhibitions in Rio and other cities in Brazil, and last year we had an art show in the University of Toronto.

I read about Dharma in a book. I got my first catalogue, and since then all my fabrics and materials are ordered from Dharma because we do not have a lot of supplies for silk painting in Brazil. I had a great telephone friend at Dharma: Maria Kelly. She was very nice and always sent me a card with my merchandise. I buy Dupont dyes, Procion, Jones Tones, resists, and Presist. My favorite paint is Lumiere. I treat my jars like jewels and get really sad when they finish. Dharma is also where I order all my fabric: velvet, organza, hemp/silk, crepe.

I like to work with color, light, and movement in my paintings and objects. In some of the pictures shown here, there can be seen some transparent organza, gauze panels, and windsocks that were hanging from the ceiling. Next to them was a fan that made them move. This exhibition was in a very nice space called Rio Design Center. In another picture is a velvet panel also shown in the same exhibition.

I painted a very big panel representing fans where I had transfer photos of my family on Dupion silk. I thank Jean Laury for her nice book, Imagery on Fabric.

Marcia Svartman,
Creative Silk Paintings