March is my favorite month. With it, the days are getting longer and we can feel the sunlight much warmer. 🌞🌱 It's the best! For me, March marks the beginning of a new cycle and the end of what happened on the previous seasons.
Since November 2023, I've been working as an Independent artist and learning to live with an uncertain income. What a journey!
I'm really glad, that January and February, have passed and that I'm alive to appreciate this moment.
Those were really difficult months for me. I felt so many emotions, a lot of frustration, impotence and much anxiety. It is not that those feelings and thoughts are gone, but with the sun I feel much better.
Besides doing all the conceptualizing, all the back office work, materializing, producing and sharing my own artwork with the world; I have been doing exercise, praying to the Universe for better thoughts and spending more time at our garden* growing vegetables and flowers.
*(I said our, because it is a project and work of two, me and Afonso, my partner in crime).
Working with my hands and seeing the progress of growing a garden for the first time , has helped me accepting that things take time (a lot of time) and we cannot control everything.
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"Transformation is not accomplished by tentative wading at the edge." From the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall kimmerer.
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Anyway, since 2018, to celebrate March, every year I organize and facilitate an activity to encourage Art and creativity in people's daily lives.
In December 2023, I applied to the Residências Refúgio OPEN CALL with a drawing project for two months and was happily selected.
During March and April'24, I'll be the artist in residence at Art & Craft Refúgio2024
"The Residências Refúgio project aims to support the inclusion and improvement of the living conditions of people in a refugee situation, through mediation, cultural activities, access to housing, documentary and reflective processes. With Largo Residências as its promoter, the Aga Khan Foundation Portugal and Fórum Refúgio Portugal as partners, it was born in 2020 with the support of Lisbon City Council's BIP/ZIP programme, and from 2022 it received funding from the PARTIS & Art for Change programme of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and "la Caixa" Foundation, and from 2023 from the Portuguese Republic - Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts."
The drawing activity “See and feel through drawing"/"Ver e sentir através do desenho ” will begin this Thursday, 7th of March and will happen every Thursday until 18th of April. From 10h to 13h.
🚩At Espaço Residências Refúgio, Largo Residências - Jardins do Bombarda, Lisbon, R. Gomes Freire 161, 1150-085 Lisbon, Portugal (New adress)
All the sessions have free entrance, but you need to do your inscription at geral@residenciasrefugio.pt
Synopsis of the Activity:
“See and feel through drawing”
Taking drawing as a starting point – the line and the stain, the aim of this cycle of workshops is to train graphic expression, creative methodology and image making in different monochromatic techniques through short drawing exercises. In the second phase and after selecting the drawings previously created, we will design and create a fanzine/coloring book, which can be (re)produced and sold to the public.
On Saturday 27th of Abril, it will happen an Open Day at Jardins do Bombarda - Centro Cultural e Comunitário, in Lisbon.
More information at https://artandcraftrefugio.weebly.com/ and https://residenciasrefugio.pt/
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I'm looking forward to see you all and share creativity with you. See you Tomorrow at the first drawing session*
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Breath In. Breath Out.
And we conquer one more day.