Tarcisio Veloso is a self-taught painter whose artistic journey began not through academic training, but through a passionate, intuitive study of images. Rather than replicating established theories, he learned by observing—with intent—the works of artists he admired. His process grew out of fascination: a deep emotional response to visual forms and the need to transform that emotion into image, often through oil painting as a medium of lasting expression.

At the core of Veloso’s work is the desire to explore the emotional friction that arises in human relationships—the presence of the other, their absence, and the shared fragility of lived experience. He paints from a place of emotional honesty, believing that to speak of oneself is, inevitably, to speak of others. Guilt, love, fear, longing—these are not personal exceptions but universal truths. His art becomes a space where these truths are given symbolic form.

Veloso constructs visual narratives using a system of symbols—some rooted in collective meaning, such as the heart; others more personal, like the swan, which he has shaped over time into a recurring emblem of the self as protagonist. These symbolic organisms are not meant to be decoded logically; rather, they are designed to resonate emotionally. Even without knowing the full symbolic lexicon, the viewer can enter the work through their own internal landscape.

It is within this ambiguity, this emotional obscurity, that the power of his work emerges. The images are not didactic—they do not explain. Instead, they open a space of shared darkness, a place where the hidden parts of ourselves can meet. For Veloso, the painting is an emotional organism—a living allegory that speaks not through form, but through intention.