Self-portrait of Levi Guerra

Me and Art

The doctor I am led to the artist who also spent being, a creator of art which is a noble mission. I have not studied Fine Arts, but I graduated in Arts by the course of my professional life, mostly. I was Human Anatomy assistant six years, dissected dozens of corpses, I gave Surface anatomy classes, I did doctorate with a thesis of Human Anatomy. I watched thousands of patients, which was an interesting observation exercise. The exercise of Clinical Medicine is a practice of permanent creative action until you reach the diagnostic and therapeutic strategy, from the attention to give to the history of present illness, the data of clinical observation, the subsidiary and complementary exams, personal and family history until the patient's psychological characterization. Moreover, I did the university teaching career at the Faculty of Medicine of Porto, in ICBAS at the University of Mondelane, Lourenço Marques, and the University of Connecticut in Hartford, USA, and also taught in nursing schools in Porto, where I taught, as appropriate, different subjects, from basic to clinical. Hence the maturity of the synthetic subject, the materials recovery criteria, while classification training papers, tests, theoretical and practical, on varying materials, Human Anatomy And Human Physiology, to Medical Biology, in Biochemistry and Internal Medicine. Furthermore the huge scientific research work done in the US, Denmark and France where always had a huge laboratory activity that is always processed within a rigorous methodology in the planning of experiments designed from knowledge, the latest of each subject, on the frontier of knowledge, and where the planning was the result of hypotheses for me and each experience was lived between the joy of design and the eagerness of results. This discipline and scientific experience I transfer it, in due time, to painting, drawing and even on a small scale, for carving.
I had perspective lessons with the teacher and painter António Cruz; I studied and trained myself on the composition, color theory, techniques, in the drawing, and the reproduction of great authors jobs like Monet, Goya, Cézane, Matisse, Picasso, Degas, VanGogh, Abel Salazar, Malhoa, Almada Negreiros, Amadeu de Sousa Cardoso, Cândido Teles and Júlio Resende, among others. My art is here! 35 years ago that I started. Today I do it my main activity. I have a vast production that exceeds the 1,000 works. I made 18 solo exhibitions and participated in about forty collective.

Levi Guerra