Thaís Silva, 20 years old, a capixaba collagist and resident of Petrópolis - RJ. Born in the interior of the state of Espirito Santo in Brasil, she lived her childhood with the difficulties of a poor rural family. She moved with her parents to Petrópolis in search of new life perspectives. There she has experienced strong internal dualities, the result of contact with people from the most varied social spectrum. Her mother, a source of great inspiration, is a woman who has always struggled to see her children happy and strong. The family was built around conservative precepts of neopetencostalism, so Thais lived in environments whose propagation of racist and misogynist ideas was not uncommon, and so sought the origins of her identity in art. For the artist, her art is a way of meeting with herself and thus strengthening what is most important for the constitution of this identity: her African and Amerindian roots.