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.

In OBRAS-Holland Derek Cracco (USA) made some abstract works that remind to planetary systems or eyeballs. And 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 (Rambo, Bruce Willis, ..) and martyrs (victims of mass shootings) are figuring. He studied the iconography of 14 to 17 century Flemish paintings in the Dutch museums to suggest the cult of the gun to be a religion.

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 completely focused on it, resulting in a fascinating 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. 
Anna showed her recent "Portuguese" works
in an exhibition: Ruin, in the Royal Society of American Art, Brooklyn, USA (July-August 2019). 

Sabine Scholl (Austria, living in Germany) did work on a historical novel, partly an essay, on Jews living in exile. She tells the story of some artists who in WW II escaped Europe (often via Portugal) in an attempt to create a new artistic career in New York. She tells about their mixed feelings: relieve to have survived the holocaust and frustrations to be a no-body in their new country.

 Cody Healey-Conelly (USA) was working nearly day and night on 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 recent American history, including human rights, climate change and alternative facts. It was unique in 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.  

Jane Flett (Scotland, living in Berlin) worked on a novel, partly built up of hundred-words fables. The novel is basically an epic longform poem about a girl who gets lost in the wilderness. It is inspired by Scottish myths but also on people who are lost during nature trials. The story explores the point that a desire to get away turns into a terror once it actually happens. It tells about disintegration of perception and loss of sense of self that occurs when you no longer have the grounding of knowing where you are.
In addition she made short poems. One is a highly original vision on vultures: see the video. 
From the first day onward Jane decided to demand to herself an iron rhythm this is the opposite of her Berlin life:  alternating yoga, eating, writing, swimming, eating, writing, relaxing, eating writing and sleeping. And it payed of: she was productive like rarely before. 

The Dutch poet and resident in 2017: Job Degenaar got three of his Portuguese poems published in the prestigious literary magazine Extaze, in a thematic edition on dairies (Extaze 30-8 nr2). Nine more will be published in April 2020.

Kathy MacLeod (Thailand) is a cartoonist by profession. Every day she worked on her dairy in cartoon style: generally very funny, original and to the point. But her main project was working on a book of about 150 pages, an autobiographical graphic novel, but also a critical essay on the life of her generation and on societal values in general. On the surface it tells about misadventures in online dating. Under the surface, however, it’s an exploration of the impossibility of achieving intimacy when pursuing it as a way to escape your demons. It is a story about watching in horror to see the void in personal life keeps getting bigger — and the slow, painful, but ultimately redeeming march towards self-acceptance. The story is funny, sometimes deeply sad and always very moving.

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.

“Sense of Place” was the title of an exhibition of the Portuguese works of Kevin Tolman (Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA: until 4 August). Kevin had several residencies in OBRAS Portugal. He made abstract collages in which he combined painted marks with found pages from journals and pamphlets. This layering refers to layering of the many cultures layered in the Portuguese landscape.

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.