Initially influenced by her mother’s wishes, Kátia Borges Mytara contemplated a career in healthcare, but this plan changed dramatically during a visit to the ceramics lab at UFU, where she observed students engrossed in their projects.
The sight of them skillfully manipulating clay with spatulas—adding, removing, and shaping the material—fascinated her. This experience ignited her passion for ceramic sculpture, evoking childhood memories of helping her mother maintain a clay-coated wood stove. As a child, she would mold small clay pieces using matchboxes as molds, creating a kind of Lego that she used to build playful miniature farms and castles, complete with dolls made from corn cobs.
These childhood creations found a new life in the Ritxoko dolls, crafted from ceramics by the women of the Karajá community along the Araguaia River. Her connection to this community is deeply personal, as she is the daughter of a white mother and an indigenous father.
Ricardo Fernandes
