Bandeira Ivana Soares

Ivana Soares Bandeira was born on 4 January 1988 in Porto Velho, Brazil. At the age of two, her parents noticed that she often collapsed, that items fell out of her hands, and that she always asked to be carried. At some stage, she started using her mouth instead of her hands to pick up things, after which the family started consulting numerous doctors in her village. All of them believed there was nothing wrong with Ivana Soares Bandeira. It was not until they visited a hospital in Goiânia that a doctor diagnosed demyelinating neuropathy. As the years went by, she lost the ability to move her arms and legs, and her feet became deformed. At the age of five, she was already writing and painting with her mouth. During a visit to hospital, she found out about Pituku Waiâpi (a deceased Association Scholarship Holder), an experience which motivated her to paint with her mouth and improve her capabilities. After secondary school, she studied Mathematics and Geometry, and did a PhD in Computer Graphics; other courses included English, Japanese and French. Her first exhibition took place in 2015. Through painting, Ivana Soares Bandeira got to know Associate Members Maria Goret Chagas and Gonçalo Borges. On her second trip to Japan, she attended a traditional Japanese painting course.