“My first wall was black and white … and I was afraid to touch the wall.”
For Eliana Dos Santos, painting has always been a passion since a young age. And it’s taken her around the world. She left her home in Brazil to paint in Europe before coming to the United States.
While she was trying to make a name for herself here, she discovered a lump in her breast. After some testing, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
She says, “My world crawled. My world was finished. I was going to die.”
But then she turned her attention back to her first love, holding a paint brush and creating murals.
She adds, “When I'm painting I just like everybody normal I don't have a sickness. You see my feelings ... my emotions .. that is the art.”
Her most recent projects are on the campus of Jonas Salk Elementary in Mira Mesa, where she was asked to create murals for the students and staff.
And while this is part of her personal healing process, she wants to encourage students to love art.
Dos Santos says, “That's a little seed, I put inside their heart.”
And even though Doctors aren’t giving Eliana much time to fight this battle with breast cancer, she takes comfort in knowing a part of her will always be around.
She adds ,”One day we are not here .. you know. And everyone will pass away one day. Everyone has one story. My story is here on the wall everyone will look at the mural the artist did that. “
While the future is unknown for Dos Santos she says the plan to keep working on her dream to paint more murals around the country.
