BUINHO ART RESIDENCY - MESSEJANA, PORTUGAL
During a 2 month residency at the Buinho Creative Hub in Messejana, Portugal, I experimented and created a series of pieces using 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, CNC Machining, Welding, and Painting. The pieces are mixed media and often times contain all of the methods listed above. I was also able to produce a series of sketches from my time there, some being literal architectural sketches, while others maintained the free flowing architectural surrealism style that I have developed.
O CASTELO
An old roman outpost and city wall, transformed over time from fortress, to castle, to tower to keep is the inspiration for this piece. The 14th century stone creates the outlines, impressions, and joints in the wood background. Metal divides us, but it also holds us together, as it holds the old stones together in areas of decay.
This castle looks out on the vast Alentejo landscape, which is reflected in the textures in the wood, highlighting the olive tree groves and hay fields after the most recent tilling of the land.
The sculpted hand loosely grasps a piece of steel that begins the metal ribbon, holding onto the memory of the land or the idea of what holds it all together.
Technique:
The wood was CNC machined after it was modeled in a computer software. Then, using hand chisels, the grooves and seams were enunciated. The metal was welded on the piece, welded in positions to secure itself to the wood without any fasteners. The hand was modeled in a computer software and then 3D printed using a PLA wood filament. The hand was then sanded and stained. The quality of the print makes it look as if the hand was sculpted out of wood.
PARA FORA
Forth, or Outward. The hands are coming forth, lifting the body out of the hole of the swirl of green and yellow and blue. The weight that holds us down and secure, unbounded. The man sits and looks at the wall of the earth below, the earth within.
The church on the opposite side, a reminder of the architecture of the place, perhaps a feeling of home. A geared heart, lodged and stuck, blood filling.
Technique:
Acrylic and micron pen on canvas.
IF LINES CAN TELL THEIR STORY
A giant whale leaps through an industrial landscape, while a praying mantis stands watch, hinting at the eventual decay of fossil fueled industry. Both figures are poised as if caught between worlds, symbolizing fragile resilience in the face of change.
This painting reflects on how a moment, one hour a day, can create connections and stories that linger in the shadowed space between worlds. Each evening, light and form cast by an old crumbling fence converge to shape a connection that quickly slips back into the unknown. A random shadow firmly imprints the silhouette of an industrial city on an empty wall, and the details emerge from within our own cultural and root layers of memory and associations.
The temporary portal between worlds - a space where images and connections are briefly suspended between reality and imagination - leaves only the memory of lines to tell its story.
Would this connection vanish if the space itself disappeared? Would the memory stay clear, or blur into imagination, surfacing only in dreams or shadows? Consider whether connections formed beyond the ordinary world truly fade away or leave an indelible mark on our reality. Fragile yet enduring, these connections shape our world, even in spaces beyond our sight.
Technique:
Wall outline that was created by a shadow was traced onto a large canvas outdoors before moving it to the studio for painting. Using dark acrylic paints, a silhouetted landscape of industrial elements—pipes, power lines and dams—was created against a backdrop of endless blue skies and enduring characters.
Collaboration with Maria Laikova
O SOM DAS OVELHAS
The sounds of the sheep is a piece that reflects the inspiring, yet bounded, beauty of sheep in our cultures. Having spent time in a rural community in the south east of Portugal, the sheep there wear bells. Although a practical method for shepherds to locate their flock, the bells offer something unique to a passerby. Close your eyes and listen to the bells tolling and the crickets chirping. This is the sound I would hear as I walked by the sheep in the middle of the night. Unable to see them but always able to hear them.
In contrast, these sheep are not only weighed down by sometimes rather large bells, but are also contained within metal fences and gates. Contained so that they may be milked, sheared, and/or eventually slaughtered and consumed.
How is something so beautiful and tranquil also something so violent and imprisoned?
Technique:
The wood background was laser engraved using a laser cutter machine. The steel was welded and the sheep were computer modeled and then 3D printed. Additionally, there is the sound of the sheep bells and crickets playing via a micro:bit pcb with an infrared sensor.
A IGREJA
The Church is a piece that is based in Messejana, Portugal. On the tallest hill in town stands a ruin of an old moorish tower and a Catholic church. The church is a literal representation of the culture and history of this town and of Portugal. The ruin is also a representation of cultural diversity. But, what does the church mean today? Here, it is abstracted and pulled down over the canvas in reflective yet opaque pieces of acrylic. The town is sketched into the canvas but barely visible behind the horizontal smearing of paint.
We each bear our own crosses as we meander up and down the hill, on this particular day, I bore my heaviest cross.
Technique:
The canvas was sketched with a perspective drawing of the road leading to the town square. The church was computer modeled and then laser cut out of acrylic in an axonometric projection. The backside of the acrylic was painted to produce an opaque yet reflective material. A second layer was added perpendicular to the canvas. The wood piece was laser cut and laid on the canvas and stained.
SKETCHES
These are a series of every day sketches from my time in Messejana as well as some other cities and town in Portugal.
