Folded Watercolors by Marcelo Daldoce Add Dimension to Portraiture

Born in Brazil, living in New York City, Marcelo Daldoce gives substance and heft to watercolor portraits. When you watch videos of him at work, he seems to use his brush as a conductor uses her baton. The initial pencil sketch serves as a printed musical score’s starting point. Forming ponds and rivulets, the hued water generously applied serves as yet uncoordinated harmonies. And the movement of the brush serves to create order out of chaos. Watching him marshal the water around the paper, knowing when to relinquish control, when to acknowledge happy accidents, is magical. With him, it’s all in the timing. The portraits’ atmospheres are airy, barely there. The paper’s texture becomes the feel of skin, of clothing. The images seem ephemeral, as if they’re about to fly away. For him, though, that’s not enough. As he writes, he wants to bring life to a flat surface: paint becomes flesh, paper becomes sculpture. He folds these portraits in ingenious ways. The result is a mix between sculpture and painting. Really though, it’s an origami version of Cubism.