Ari Arantes: Graffiti Artist

Art can be created from a myriad of materials and there are many artists who base their work in the unconventional. Street artist Ari Arantes, known as “Green Finger” (Deddo Verde) makes graffiti art from discarded plants. 

“In gardening, I used to pull out the leaves, bagged them all…I had a feeling this is more than just trash, I’ll try to use it as a stencil.”

Gardening has always been part of Ari’s life as he grew up helping out with his mother’s landscaping business and he does landscaping himself now. The art is becoming more of his identity, though.

“Gardening trash has become my job.”

The idea is to create something green in the middle of the city. São Paulo, where Ari is from, is primarily a cityscape. With the addition of some green, even if it’s artificial, the landscape can change.

“Nowadays we find it very common to see walls or concrete. In the past, it was very common to see nature. So, painting is a form of protesting. It’s nature taking its place back.”

One of the biggest things that has come out of his art is the opportunity to start working with Art Director Billy Castilho in film. He helps create jungle aesthetics on set.

“We build forests in the studios, deserts, everything that is very natural…”

Ari acknowledges that if it weren’t for the support and teaching gained from many different aspects of his life, he wouldn’t be where he is today. 

“My parents taught me how to really do gardening, dig, planting and the graffiti artists taught me to do something different, the movie industry taught me to do the impossible.”

For more information, visit the Deddo Verde website.

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This episode was filmed, edited, and produced by Bettina Hanna.