This page shows residents and their projects in 2019.
The most recent residencies are shown in the newsletter.

Other pages show residents and their projects in 2018,  2017,  2016, 2015,  2014 ,  2012 and 2013  and 2004-2011. 
A visual collage of residents is in this slide show.

Sherry Wiggins (USA) returned to OBRAS-Portugal for a short but very productive residency. Together with the Portuguese photographer Luis Branco she did photo shoots in the fortress of Evoramonte, in the nature directly around our house and Pego do Sino, a hidden canyon on a 30 minutes’ walk from the house. An impression is in the slide show on this page and much more about the results and vision is on the blog of Sherry. We have started preparing a duo exhibition for Sherry and Luís in the prestigious Salão Nobre in the Palácio Barrocal in Évora in spring next year.
The work of Sherry and Luís of 2017 has been exhibited earlier this year in Denver, Colorado. Sherry and Luís have a long term project:  a contemplation on human/nature relations, dedicated to nature embracing a middle aged woman.Although Sherry is the model and Luís the photographer, it became an intense exchange of creative ideas.

Derek Cracco (visual artist; USA) teaches printmaking and computer graphics. As an artist he makes wall size “pointillist” collages, often on societal subjects, sometimes abstract. At OBRAS Holland he started a body of work related to America’s obsession with guns and how the media has glorified and promoted this obsession. By drawing, painting and reworking found images he created devotional prayer cards for the holy cult of the Second Amendment. Both heroes such as Rambo and Bruce Willis, and martyrs: victims killed at mass shootings are figuring. He studied the iconography of 14 to 17 century Flemish paintings in the museums in the region to suggest the cult of the gun to be a religion.
Soon some images will be added.

The French sound-artist Frederique Mathevet amazed all of us with his artist talk. A major part of his project was basically making sound compositions of images from objects in the surroundings. He outlined the piano keys on a transparent sheet and moved this sheet over the objects. The overlap of a piano key on the sheet with a line of dot in the object resulted in the base for scores for a piano composition. It was a highly original and fascinating example of cross-art. Have a look at the slide show.

The cellist Beate Schnaithmann (Germany, living in Switzerland) had an intense residency. She was studying many hours per day, but also started a series of collaborative projects. Most of them are mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter. With Rob Monaghan she went at night to the marble quarries to make video and sound recordings with just the sound of the cello, moonlight and croaking frogs. Later at daylight she played Benjamin Britten at a lake in a marble quarry. Initiated by Carolyn Wenning she did a cross art project in which visual artists responded on her improvisations. And with Ingrid Simons she responded with cello sounds on Ingrid´s video of a seascape. Most remarkable is that she started a trio with Mauro Dilemma (piano) and Andreia Vaz (violin). They almost certainly will have concerts in the near future in Portugal and Switzerland. But above all the residency brought her new viewpoints and inspiration for her musical career.

Anna Ortiz (USA) has a Mexican father. Step-wise she is more and more using her Mexican roots as a source of inspiration for her paintings. During her residency she complete focused on it, resulting in a fascination series of drawings and paintings with hints to Mexican mythology or with surrealistic scenes with a Mexican touch. One painting shows Flor, our one-eyed cat, as an Aztec God. 

 Cody Healey-Conelly (USA) was working nearly day and night of a combination of a sculpture and a video animation. With foam sheets he created a hub of milk shake cups, Mac Donald packs, a gun and a car. On its surfaces he projected a 3-minutes video collage of issues in the recent American history, including human rights, climate change and alternative facts. It was unique it its formal approach and moving in its content. And it was more than beautiful.

Carolyn Wenning (USA) made a beautiful series of black-and-white drawings, mostly with charcoal and liquid wax. Although largely abstract, the source of inspiration was the surrounding pasture and the marble quarries. In addition she made collages with fragments of old books that she found on the farmers market. The slide show gives an impression.
Carolyn also initiated a highly successful cross-art experiment: she proposed Beate Schnaithmann to improvise on her cello while the other residents were responding by drawing. This video shows the action.  

Also good to know:

In May we had two house concerts with a resident: Beate Schnaithmann (cello), and two friends and professional musicians from Évora: Mauro Dilema (piano) and Andreia Vaz (violin). In the first concert they played Piazzolla and Rachmaninoff and in the second Piazolla and Schubert. They are now considering to start a trio for concerts in Switzerland and Portugal.

Cody Healey-Connely (USA) told us that his short animation movie Glitch Noir has been selected for the fourth time for screening in a film festival. This time it will be in the United Arab Emirates. The movie is a thriller about malfunctioning drones. Cody made it during his residency in OBRAS-Holland in 2015. He returned to OBRAS-Holland in 2018 and had residencies in OBRAS-Portugal in 2017 and 2019.

Rachel Tzvia Back (Israel) was resident in 2013 and 2015. Her newest album: What Use Is Poetry, The Poet Is Asking. has been published in May 2019 (Shearsman Books (Newcastle u.T., UK). ISBN 978-1-84867-640-090000). Several poems relate to observations during her residency, even one of our two cats had the honor to be subject.

CAT (2)
 
As though all that could ever
be desired
                were in its boughs - She
unfaltering
climbs.
 
Her smoke-grey self
is steady as she rises
                Deep into the Sky
 
and still
the Surprise –
 
When there on the
swaying steeple branch
                as though herself
 
a Bird –
she lies down
 
and sleeps.