We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Silvia Poloto a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Silvia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was not exposed to anything artistic growing up.
I followed in my brother’s footsteps and got an Electrical Engineering degree (from the best University in Brazil). After 5 years of school, and a couple of years in a dull job I decided to go for a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Soon afterwards I had an opportunity to spend one year in the Bay Area for work.
But as soon as I arrived I realized everything I had done was for the wrong reasons. Being far away from other’s expectations made me look inside of myself and see who I really was. And I did not know who I was at that point, but I immediately saw who I was not, and I wasn’t an engineer.
So, without even knowing welded steel sculptures existed, I felt a need to work with metal (no idea where that came from) so I took a welding class and I started making welded steel sculptures. Making my first welded steel sculpture felt like a spiritual experience, I felt I had not made that piece, but the piece had been made through me.
Since then my existence has been defined by an intense need to create.
When I got into this creative path, everything started making sense, and I felt an inner enthusiasm with a frequency I had never felt before. Coincidences also started taking place and doors started opening. I think it is incredible how a new world opens up to you when you start following the path you are supposed to follow.
You go from wanting to do it to living it.

Silvia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As I said previously I started as a sculptor. At first I used steel and did monumental welded steel sculptures. I also worked in wood, cement and stone.
At one point I took a photography class to be able to photograph my sculptures and fell in love with the medium.
Soon after I started painting. I have used acrylic, oils, fiberglass, resin and wax.
I have given myself permission to have the freedom to experiment, exploring as many materials, subject matter and approaches as possible. And even though I choose all those things, the work I create is not entirely a matter of conscious choice. My work is poetic, intuitive, I feel it comes from a mysterious place inside me. It is about being present here / now.
My work is an invitation to feel.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I met my late husband in Brazil while I was an engineer. He was from Ireland but had been living in Brazil for 8 years when we met. We moved to San Francisco in 1994 and from the beginning he was very supportive of my creative pursuits. He promptly agreed not to move back to Brazil, since I felt I had more freedom being far away from family and expectations. So it was just the two of us in the US with no family around. All his family are in Ireland and mine in Brazil.
Our son was born in 2000 and around 2005 when my career was taking off, he decided to quit his job and help me out with the business side of my art.
Sadly, he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma) in 2007.
With no family around to help, I had to be a nurse to him, a driver to never-ending appointments, to be present to our son in school-related activities, and do everything else that now I had no help with ( supermarket, cooking, lunch-boxes ) and still make time to make and sell my art to be able to pay all the bills.
Soon after my husband’s diagnosis, my father passed away in Brazil, A year later, my husband died, our son was only eight.
In less than 4 years, I lost my father, my husband, my mother, and also my best friend, who also lived in Brazil.
During this period, my identity as a wife, daughter, mother, and friend shifted and transformed. My identity as both woman and artist expanded.
I was able to keep going, making art and raising a beautiful boy as a single mother and artist. I felt my pain, I cried, but then got up and painted. I transformed my pain into a beautiful thing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I can’t talk about others, but for me, It is about following my intuition, my gut.
And this applies not only while creating art but how I live my life.

I can illustrate this by giving an example. In 2011 I was told by my landlord he was soon be selling the building where I had been living since moving to San Francisco. It was a beautiful loft and my studio was next door, it was a perfect situation. I loved this space so much that at one point, when my late husband and I could have bought a modest house, we did not, because I did not want a house, I wanted a warehouse!!!
Well, I found a falling-apart warehouse soon after the landlord’s notice, in an underdeveloped part of San Francisco. It was a foreclosure. Against all the well-meaning advice and warnings from friends, I went ahead and managed (it was though but this is a separate story) to purchase it, and without previous experience transformed the space into a gorgeous home. My gut kept telling me yes, when everybody was telling me no.

Like the story above, I also make art from my gut. My intuition is my muse.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.poloto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silviapoloto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silviapolotoart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/silvia-poloto-art/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@silviapolotoart