April

"(...) the art we tend to find most interesting is also in that middle-ground between complete order and complete disorder - in other words, between being completely boring and completely unintelligible." Neil Johnson (2009). Simply Complexity. A clear guide to complexity theory.. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) March 2025.

Sustainable prosperity

«A shift towards an economy of care, craft and creativity (...) is not just about the quality of public services or the possibility of creating decent employment. It's a direct answer to the search for a sustainable prosperity. The quest for the good life. To the desire to live well - within the limits of a finite planet.» Tim Jackson (2025). The Care Economy. 

Photo of tapestry «Connected» (81 x 91 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). August 2025.

Garden design as Art

"(...) bear in mind that garden design as it is studied by the one nation which really understands it - the Japanese - takes many years of serious application to reach perfection. It is a very high art". Frances Wolseley (1919). Gardens: their form and design. Found and suggested by paula simoes' blog. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), July 13, 2025.

PS - The Countryman's Log Book

June

"There is a connection between the brain and the hand that supports an embodied cognition, a knowing. Handicrafts in particular, which require dexterity and patience and a respect for the material, help make connections for us." Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross (2023). Your Brain on Art: how the arts transform us.

Photo of mini tapestry (10 x 15 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 30, 2024.

creation at the core of art-I-fact

The beginning of a new tapestry starts long before I lay out the threads on the frame. Each tapestry starts as a synapse that survived in my brain. With time it weaves together with other synapses, creating a visual memory that grows and evolves, reinforcing some features and letting go others. This visual memory mixes with previous experiences, narratives of people, new and old books, and life’s events at the gestating stage. Then, the image of possibilities for the next work meets with the material affordances of all the resources collected. Materiality that will give substance to daydream explorations, until the dialogue between mind, hands, vision, and materials becomes irresistible and the fragrances fill the room with the materialization of a new art-I-fact. From stillness to flow. Hatched from a resilient synapse that joined with others. Creation at the core. Flourishing by coming into being. 

Photo of tapestry (83  x 78 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

April

"When you tape into the arts to foster a meditative state, the places in your brain responsible for judgment and personal criticism are quieted in your prefrontal cortex, and you can assess a more generous, perspective-taking point of view." Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (2023). Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Obra de Cruz-Filipe. Exposição Modo de Ver na Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. 

July

"Is art resistance? Can you plant a garden to stop a war? It depends how you think about time. It depends what you think a seed does, if it’s tossed into fertile soil. But it seems to me that whatever else you do, it’s worth tending to paradise, however you define it and wherever it arises." Olivia Laing cited in Maria Popova «Gardening as Resistance: Notes on Building Paradise». Makes me want to read the book Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency (2021). Photo by Monica Pinheiro free to use it if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

September

"(...) art holds the promise of initiating (...) creative percepcional and philosophical shifts, offering new ways of comprehending ourselves and our relation to the world differently than the destructive traditions of colonizing nature." T.J. Demos (2016). Decolonizing Nature. Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. Image by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

June

What can we do with what we already have? What is the environment giving in abundance that we can use to solve a need or a problem? Knowledge, art, technology, resources, «things»? While we aspire for something else, what can we do with what we have?

Cut out plants may be garbage, food, play, or energy. They are also colour pallets, materials for creating tapestries, windows for other worlds. Plants, seeds, bark, and all kinds of different materials that lay around in the environment. Feeling the touch, discovering the colour, memorizing the smell. Weaving quietly different textures and tensions. Creating peace to guide action. Liberating the mind to shape possibilities.

 

Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

Underland

“We find speaking of the Anthropocene, even in Anthropocene, difficult. It is, perhaps, best imagined as an epoch of loss – of species, of places and people – for which we are seeking a language of grief and, even harder to find, a language of hope.” Robert Macfarlane (2019). Underland: a deep journey. 

Photo of tapestry (81 x 90 cm) by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2020.

fair/fear

Milan, after immersing myself in the second Resonances exhibition about Fair/Fear. "How can we build a fair world? Science and art (SciArt) meet to provoke conversation and inspire answers to this question". Exhibition by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), EU. Explanations by Curator Paul Heard very enriching, adding depth, and new layers of meaning. Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

by Jimmy Lawlor