Entry 03: RESIDENCY REVIEW
ON PORTRAITURE AND PROCESS: A VISUAL JOURNAL + FINAL REFLECTION from my month in studio at Córtex Frontal, Portugal:
It’s taken me nearly a decade to build back the confidence to approach figurative painting. Through illustration, photography, my interest in byzantine iconography, as well as various other modes of record keeping, I’ve returned to portraiture through an ongoing series — begun while in residence — that encompasses my practice.
Painting is my home medium and has given me the opportunity to be reborn time and time again (embracing how corny that sounds but) - It’s almost as if I’d never done it before this period. I made 28 portraits for 28 days. What complete renewal I’ve felt - My hands are capable and free…
This new series is drawn from a selection of iphone photos + film portraiture I’ve amassed over the past 7 years. Combining photos I’ve taken of people on the streets, public transit, at various sites across many cities, with pictures I’ve taken of friends, family, and loved ones over the years, I’m working towards an ongoing series that will eventually be exhibited as a greater whole. My aim is that the viewer will not be able to discern my relationship to the subject, all reflecting some semblance of intimacy and care —
Can we love others as we love our own?
To be able to bring forth the first chapter of this series amongst people new to me - other artists and curators in residence — with some removal from my life and community in New York, felt completely recentering to my process. Once strangers, now friends and confidants, I felt a new surge of confidence to work and reinvent my process —
While here, I thought a lot about the ways we limit ourselves, our own artistic possibility, based on our own built expectation of ourselves and perceived visual language (even the two-dimensional versions we share of ourselves). I realized that despite my efforts to work in an interdisciplinary capacity to avoid pigeon-holing my practice, I’d actually done it to myself —
Working alongside people new to me, without any context or preconceived notion of who I was or made, I freed myself and my hand…
I am very excited to be stepping into this new chapter of work and purpose — an overwhelming levity and a blessing to feel during this time. With gratitude to Mercedes Vidal-Abarca + the Córtex team for facilitating these illuminating moments of clarity that will certainly light my path for seasons to come —
Córtex Frontal is a multidisciplinary cultural project established in 2016 by the Cultural Association Córtexcult, located in Arraiolos, Alentejo, Portugal. They organize artist residencies, workshops, and exhibitions across disciplines including Visual Arts, Performative Arts, Literature, and Music. Córtex Frontal is a member of the Portuguese Contemporary Art Networks (RPAC).
If you are interested in applying or attending a workshop, I’m here to share my experience or offer recommendations. I highly encourage any artists interested in investing in their practice to apply to a residency in general — I’ve compiled an open Google spreadsheet of opportunities here. x
