MY PERSONAL HERO – SALVADOR DALI

Hi, I’m Lucca. I love arts and I always paint pictures in my free time. That is why, the person I admire the most is called Salvador Dali. My hero, Salvador Dali, was one of the most interesting and unusual artists of all time. He was born in Spain in 1904 and began painting when he was a child. His mother gave him a room in the family home to paint in. This way, he spent more time painting and became better at it. In 1921, he went to study at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He quickly made friends with other artists there. He did very well at the Academy. However, most people didn’t remember his paintings; they remembered his strange clothes and manners. While he was there, he read a famous book about dreams by Sigmund Freud. Freud said that dreams were very important in our lives. After reading this book, Dali painted strange pictures that looked like dreams. They often showed empty deserts with unusual things in them – like melting watches and faces. This kind of painting was called “Surrealism”.

Dali did not only paint pictures. He designed clothes and made short movies too. He also drew pictures for books and made jewels. He loved people watching him. He was always doing unusual things outside his house. People came and watched him. Once he made an egg as big as a man and put red liquid into it. When he broke it open, the red liquid, which looked like blood, came out of it. Dali said this meant the beginning of life. Now there are many big eggs on his museum in Spain. Dali was still painting when he was 80. He was so famous that people bought his surreal paintings even before he had finished painting them. He died in 1989.