I’ll try my best to explain why I choose this name for my brand and why it is so important to me, but for that, we are going on a little trip to the past, to when I had just turned 30 years old.

I remember the day I sat in the living room to watch the movie “The Shack”, and while watching it I started to question myself and God about the internal conflicts I and the struggles I was dealing with to keep a healthy mind.

During this specific scene where one of the two main characters of the movie walked together through a crazy messy garden, in my mind I said to God “Why am I here? Why did You created me? What were you thinking when you planned my existence? I’m sorry but I don’t see much purpose in my life, I don’t fell Your love towards me and I can’t even tell that I love you too. I know You know what’s inside of me and why would I lie to You about it, this is how I fell right now, and I know it’s not Your fault.”

The movie was over and by the end of it I literally swallowed my cry and kept on going pretending I was fine even though I was crumbling on the inside.

Seven days went by and I received a phone call from someone I haven’t seen for many years. She said she couldn’t stop thinking of me during that week and that she needed to talk to me about something she had in her heart.

The first thing she said on the phone was “Please don’t think I'm crazy, but I had this impression in my spirit and I’ll just say what it is to you and I hope this brings you something you are in need. First of all, I felt like going for a walk around my garden when I called you and what crosses my mind when I look to all the flowers and plants here is that God loves you a hundred per cent. When He created you He thought about all the arts you would create for Him. He loves seeing you being artistic and He rejoices with it.”

At this point I was already leaning on the ground with the floor soaked in tears. Then she kept on going “There was a garden. A garden you used to go when you were a lilt girl. He was always there with you in that garden, doing what only you could do in that place. This garden still existis and He is still waiting for you there”. It was at this moment, just like a clear scene of a movie, that I started to remember about when I used to go to my grandma’s farm and play in her garden. If you think with me, we didn’t have too much to do in farm 30 years ago, so we had to be creative and find ways to play and have fun.

I saw myself picking all the flowers my grandma planted all along the road that lead to the farm’s entrance gate. After picking them all up, I sorted them by colors in empty yogurt cups I used for playing. Then I added a little bit of water in each cup and started smashing the petals until I got what it looked like a water color tincture out of it. My mind was then flooded with the images of the my little hands using that tincture to paint on old notebooks my grandma had around the house.

To be honest I don’t remember what I would use as a brush, but I can clearly see myself being creative about it and making my own brushes out of frayed sticks or something like that.

After crying my lungs out by remembering all of it we finished the call and I started a long conversation with The One who guided her to call and tell me all of those things.

Every time I thing about this day I feel butterflies in my belly. This experience felt like coming back home, I felt like I was finding myself again.

From that day on I had and still have clear in my heart that the true, bare, pure art was placed within me even before I was conceived. It has been designed as part of my essence, ever since my existence was planned. I felt in my spirit that my grandma’s garden was only the place this sacred gift that was within me started to bloom, just like a little plant spiking out it’s firsts buds.

Now I know my call is to keep it growing, blooming and bearing it’s fruits everywhere I go.

I’m pretty sure at this point you must be thinking that I got caught in the storytelling and forgot to explain the reason why I use the name “Tinta De Flor”. the answer is very simple. As I said on the first part of my bio, I am from Brazil. I grew up there and moved to US when I was already an adult. If you translate ‘Ink from Flower” from English to Portuguese what you will have is “Tinta de Flor”.

Making “Tinta de Flor” was not only a bored kid’s little play, it was when my story with the art started.

- Natalia Thomaz