Paintings Up Soon

Some of you might be saying to yourselves, "Isn't this exhibit supposed to have some paintings?"

Right you are, meus amigos.

Megan and I are painting away, and we've been working up all of our paintings to the same level of finish. So thought we've gotten a lot done, none of them are ready yet.

We're going to switch gears now though, and we should have one or two ready to photograph and post to the blog by early next week.

We do, however, have a wonderful painting from our bahian artist friend, Josué Souza, which is posted here.

More work to come, soon!

Pronunciation Guide

A lot, if not most of you, are wondering how to pronounce the title of the project, Sou da Bahia, a Portuguese phrase which, when translated directly into English, means "I'm from Bahia". Well, since none of us understand the upside down "e"s and those weird dictionary pronunciation guides, we're going to give it to you straight—phonetic style.

The first two words are easy. You can say them like "So" and "dah." Bahia, though it has an "h" in the middle, carries no "h" sound. Instead you say it like this:

Bye-EE-ah

The tonic syllable, or accent, goes on the "EE" part.

So all together, in a flowing, sing-songy kind of voice:

"So dah Bye-EE-ah!"

And there you have it.

Some of you might ask, "Why didn't you just name it I'm from Bahia? After all, it is for primarily English speaking audiences."

A good question, and not one taken lightly either. We decided to keep the title in Portuguese because of it's deeper connotations. Saying "Sou da Bahia" doesn't just mean "I'm from Bahia." It's a label of pride. It's a mark of honor. It's a feeling and a sentiment that can't be translated directly. So we didn't try.

We hope that the show itself will communicate the title's deeper meaning, and give some insight—no matter how limited—into what it means to be da Bahia.

The Documentary

An integral part of the Sou da Bahia project was the creation of a feature-length documentary for television broadcast and for use in the exhibit. Here is one of the promotional teasers which should already be airing on television.

The international version for broadcast on BYU TV International is scheduled to air on August 24 at 4:30 PM.

Vignettes from the film will be featured as a part of the exhibit in September and we are currently pursuing the possibility of other television broadcasts as well as a special theatrical screening at BYU. Stay Tuned!

A Little Hint...

As this is the first post on the blog, we're putting up just a few photographs taken while we visited Bahia last summer (2008). Enjoy! Be sure to visit Nick's blog as well to see some really fantastic photography.