Regis Silva’s three-dimensional “paintings” pay homage to ancient African gods.

The Orishas have been called Black Gods in Exile. Brought to Brazil by abducted slaves, these African deities were kings, queens, mythical heroes and other ancestors raised to the status of gods.

When 27-year-old Brazilian artist Regis Silva discovered the Orishas, he became fascinated with the deities’ cross-cultural interpretations, their powerful natural animism and their intricate and engaging mythology.

“The more I read, the more I liked about the whole mythology,” Silva says. “It’s a lot like Greek mythology. So complex and so big.”

His new exhibit, Happy Colors, Happy Life, integrates found objects into huge female figures that bulge and swell and droop as much as three feet off the canvas. Inspired by specific Orishas, the sculptures are an engaging blend of simple forms and bold colors informed by Silva’s fascination with Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion.

In Brazil, as in Cuba with the Santería, the African deities were disguised through their association with Catholic saints in order to practice the forbidden religion.

“It mixes indigenous Brazilian, African and Catholicism,” Silva says, “When I lived in Brazil, it’s a part of the daily life. Many people go to both church and other spiritual centers. They see them as the same entities.”

Born in Paraiso, a town in Central Brazil, Silva was 15 when a dream prompted him to attend his first Umbanda ceremony. The experience was life-affirming and served to root him in his culture. Although he says he’s not a member of the religion, its imagery greatly influenced his art from the very beginning.

Silva’s paintings are built on hard wood structure frames and wrapped in canvas. An avowed environmentalist, Silva incorporates recyclable materials such as newspapers, magazines, bottles, and plastics in the paintings’ three-dimensional aspects.

“My Orishas, they have the good and the evil. They are both beautiful and ugly,” Silva says.

The Orishas are also closely connected to forces of nature such as air and water, as well as to mountains and animals. In addition, each deity has a specific attribute: a color, a metal, a day of the week, a favorite dish, a certain drumbeat, which Silva takes into account when he creates his sculpture.

“I am very much interested in recycling and the environment,” Silva says. “The Orishas are part of nature. But they are very specific. There can be a goddess of the ocean, one of fresh water, one of lakes…and these deities change from culture to culture.”

Silva began thinking about writing his own version of the Orishas’ mythology nine months ago.

“I was reading so much about the mythology, but there are so many different cultures, so many different versions. I found there is not a sequence to the myths, it is very mixed up,” Silva says. “So I want to write a book and illustrate it with 20 sculptures. Find a way to tell the story in an order where this came first, then next this.”

 More than anything, perhaps, Silva’s art is a way for him to reconnect with the homeland he left six years ago.

“I miss Brazil,” he says. “But she is with me.”

HAPPY COLORS, HAPPY LIFE IS ON EXHIBIT THROUGH AUG. 25 IN THE DAVID HENRY GILL GALLERY AT THE PACIFIC GROVE ART CENTER, 568 LIGHTHOUSE AVE., PACIFIC GROVE. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 375-2208 OR VISIT WWW.PGARTCENTER.ORG.