One word is enough and there’s a word in Portuguese we use a lot in several extreme occasions, whenever something is very good or real bad. FODA. I find it funny that one word can express perfectly such opposite feelings depending on the context. Regarding Ideafixa, it’s the positive one. FODA. It’s kinda like when you say “f*cking awesome”, you know? It just feels good to say, it rolls from your mouth easily and it suits very well when you pair it with the good ol’ horn hands gesture. Double the gesture if you are Becky Cloonan, who says foda beautifully. T0 get the correct sound, say FO like “fork” and DA like dart. That’s it. Foda. You got it.

So, yes, Ideafixa is foda and please don’t get me wrong if I tell you that the reason I say that is not because of form nor content, which is amazing btw, but for the balls the girls had to make this online magazine happen, a project that could easily be gone and forgotten like so many did before. It’s not easy. It’s never easy.

But Janara Lopes and Alicia Ayala got inside their imaginary Thunderbird 66 and hit the road in a Thelma&Louise state of mind, with the wind in their hair and the bugs on the windshield. FODA. Foda and a half because no Grand Canyon could have stopped them. In the past few years Ideafixa moved from Paraná to São Paulo and grew. It grew in size and people, and published, organized, represented, edited, awarded, taught, created, curated, inspired, made whatever it could so that you and I and everybody else had a place under the sun. And you know what else? It never asked for anything in return. FODA. And a half.

I won’t say I was there when Ideafixa was born, but I did what a could to pick it up from the cradle in their second issue Metropolis and to be present when it gave its first steps on the third issue, Rock’n’Roll. And I know I also wasn’t there when it first got to school but I dropped by in later issues such as Woman, Self-portraits and Soccer. And even thou sometimes I can be an inattentive uncle, Ideafixa invited me for projects like, Enox Expressions, Caderno de Viagens and their book Ideafixa Greatest Hits. FODA. Foda with double horn hands like Becky’s.

This month Ideafixa had its 5th anniversary and presented us with a very special surprise edition, redesigned and full of collaborators showing their work and their faces when they had pink cheeks and dirt all over their clothes. The introduction of this issue starts by saying that Ideafixa is just a frame… That’s bullsh*t. You guys are more than just a frame. In my opinion you are the most important and wide-ranging independent communication vehicle we have around here and for that dedication (and balls) you deserve not only our trust but our endearment and devotion. Forever.

I felt very honored when I got the invitation to be part of this issue. Each one of us had to send an old picture and an illustration as a gift. I decided not to show anything that was previously published by anyone else, printed or online, nor make any random doodle in a rush in the middle of so many other things made in a rush. It had to be something special and unique. And I wanted the present to somehow fit this whole “5 years old” spirit going on.

My parents always kept our drawings since my brother and I first started to insanely doddle all the time and everywhere. For every trip we went to we got a new set of colored pens and a new sketchbooks. I still have lots of them here with me but there are two that are very special. They are my oldest drawings, from a time where pants had flares much more wider and colors much more dreadful than what would be socially acceptable nowadays. Here they are:

Definitely a perfect gift, but I had to choose just one. Funny how these things are. This decision reminds me of an everyday struggle that most of us have everyday. Am I a commercial illustrator ready to offer my skills and be at your service whenever you need or am I an independent artist with ideas and a voice of my own? What do I want with my work and where do I want to go from here? What do I do with the gazillion projects I put back on the drawer whenever a briefing hits my inbox? It’s tough. It’s FODA. And by the context you can figure out its other meaning.

I keep them both out of the folder where the other drawings are, pinned in a board I have where I work. They have a different meaning now, much more profound than before. They are there to always show me the paths I can go thru and as I always say I’m blessed to have the fortune to be able to choose my own fortune. Today I’m a commercial illustrator more than an independent artist and by this fact alone I chose the Happy Cowboy over the Accidental Miró. Things that we have to deal with when we’re far from being 5 years old, you know what I’m talking about. As I said, it’s not easy. It’s never easy. But who knows what lies ahead? I believe in myself and in my work and that’s enough for me to keep me going.

Ending this post requires more than just a word. I needs a group of words that together resume what we can learn from these 5 years of the hyperactive and ingenious kid that is Ideafixa: the most important thing is to look ahead and keep on going straight to that shiny sunset in the horizon without any fear or doubt, believing in your instincts, your dreams, your imagination, inspiring and being inspired, facing each day of work as a good professional and being honest with you and everybody else, regardless of what it can be given in return.

Congratulations and thank you, Ideafixa. You’re FODA!

K