January

“You cling to a thread of hope, of course you do. But in the face of the blunt instruments of silence and nothingness, the shadow of hope grows ever fainter.” Haruki Murakami (2025). The city and its uncertain walls. Without image of «Consciousness» tapestry (73 x 80 cm), January 2026, by Monica Pinheiro. 

December

"You mix your metaphors, and a seed becomes a lantern glowing, or a flashlight, or a firefly hatching". Rebecca Solnit (2025). No Straight Road Takes You There. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) December 2025.

November

“The organized expression of collective interests is what gives shape and meaning to democracy, and requires trust, continuity, structure – and the willingness of people to join things”. Yuan Yang, 2024. Why We Should Join Things. In Democracy: Eleven Writers and Leaders on what it is – and why it matters. Image of tapestry «Democracy vessel» (83 x 80 cm). November 2025. Below, fresh flowers of agapanthus collected in July. Dry flowers. Multipurpose tools used during work. 

All photos by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

“We need to step outside the machine in order to comprehend how it is working and where it is failing us”. Step into Nature, “a generous teacher, if we can only manage to slow down and listen to what it is saying”. Nature is the system of systems, running with stunning complexity, based in feedback loops “allowing natural ecosystems to continue in equilibrium for eons” even if some “have failed to notice, let alone appreciate”, others haven't. 

“Democracy, too, is a delicate ecosystem – of checks and balances, rights and needs, power and accountability, It requires a healthy, functioning environment and a diverse community of interacting organisms”. It also requires feedback loops. “Our voices matter. Stories bring us together. Silences keep us apart” and erase democracy, in our country and in other's countries. Democracy is interconnected. Worldwide.

Elif Shafak, 2024. Terra Incognita. In Democracy: Eleven Writers and Leaders on what it is – and why it matters. 

Foto Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). October 30, 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.

July

“(…) the whole world is crumbling and we can do more than ask for hope. And what if there is no hope? Do we just lie down and accept our fate? Or, a more dangerous question: what if there is hope? Are they ready to do what it takes? (…) she looked like one of those rare women who had earned the lines on her face. ‘They mean something else when they speak of hope’ (…) ‘Think about faith’ (…) ‘Not the religious kind.’ So I did”. Ece Temelkuran (2025). Together: a Manifesto Against a Heartless World. Foto Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), July 2025.

March

A propósito das narrativas exageradas e erróneas da grandiosidade do ser humano, António Damásio, em Sentir e Saber (2020), escreve: 

"É grandiosa no que diz respeito aos seres humanos; menospreza injustificadamente os seres não-humanos; e não reconhece a interdependência e a capacidade de cooperação das criaturas vivas, desde as que existem ao nível macroscópico até aos seres humanos. Em última análise, não reconhece a presença de dispositivos e mecanismos poderosos, presentes na natureza desde o início da vida." 

Photo of tapestry detail «undigitise» by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). March 2025.

Gaze

in english: "a steady and intentional look at something or someone, often for a long time, typically indicating interest, admiration, or contemplation. It can also imply a psychological relationship of power between the observer and the observed". by DuckDuckGo 

in portuguese "a light, thin and transparent cotton or silk fabric, very porous, sterile (or sterilizable), of varying elasticity, thickness, shape, reticulation and size, depending on the use for which it is intended. It is usually used in dressings and surgical interventions, and may be impregnated with medications such as antiseptics." by Wikipedia

Photo of tapestry (80 x 80, belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January 19, 2025.

January

“(…) my story bleeds through from my cover into the real world, a message from a parallel universe revealed through graphic design and visual creativity. My cover is the shadow on Plato’s cave wall, a hint of the truth and imagination hidden within. When you look at me, I am designed to make you want to open the lid and let my stories escape through your gaze, diving through your eyes into your mind, where they can live and breed anew. I’m only a book. Hold me.” Robert Klanten, Mathias Hubnel and Andrew Losowsky (2013). Fully Booked. Photo of tapestry on the making (belonging to «404 Humanity not found» serie), by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January, 2025.

Humanity 404

 

"We who are not there, witnessing from afar, in what ways are we mutilating ourselves when we dissociate to cope?" Isabella Hammad (2024). Recognising the Stranger. Photo of tapestry on the making by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). January, 2025.

unplug the infinite

We need to "reinvent movement, the vector of our actions. We need to not forge ahead into the infinite, but learn to step back, to unplug, in the face of the finite. That's another way of liberating yourself. A form of feeling your way, and, curiously, of becoming capable again of reacting." Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis. 

Photo of tapestry (80 x 74 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October, 2024.

November

"It's the spectator who judges and who decides, to the point where every relationship between forest, sun, lake, animal and sky goes via him and is establish for his sole good. It scarcely matters, moreover, whether what’s been stuck in front of him is an old master, an industrial development project, a battle plan, a view of the sky, a theatre scene or the map of a realm some prince hopes to control.” Bruno Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis.

Photo of mini tapestry (15 x 9 cm) with dry flowers, plant leafs and fibers. by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 8, 2024.

September

"Because it is always tempting to over emphasize autonomy and independence, these helpless creatures are here to remind us that no one is, in the end, 'self-made'; we are all heavily in someone's debt. We realize that life depends - quite literally - on the capacity for love. (...) All this she will later forget and they will be unable or unwilling to convey to her." Alain de Botton (2017). The Course of Love. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). September 6, 2024.

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.

June

"(...) from wholeness as a living plant to fragment strands and back to wholeness again as a" tapestry. "The dual powers of destruction and creation that shape the world. Strands once separated are rewoven into a new hole." Grief can "be comforted by creation, by rebuilding the homeland that was taken. The fragments, like ash splints, can be rewoven into a new whole." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

Photo of «Shadow Worlds» tapestry (76 x 82 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 20, 2024.

June

"To let threads be articulate again and find a form for themselves to no other end than their own orchestration, not to be sat on, walked on, only to be looked at…" Anni Albers (1959). Pictorial Weaving. Wishlist book. Latest tapestry on the making detail photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) April, 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.

February

"What if we could fashion a restoration plan that grew from understanding multiple meanings of land? Land as sustainer. Land as identity. Land as grocery store and pharmacy. Land as connection to our ancestors. Land as moral obligation. Land as sacred. Land as self. (..) Land as home." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. 

Photo of «Weaving roots to a better world» tapestry (86 x 78 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

February

“Imperfect they may be, but I believe they are a beginning of a reweaving of the bond between people and the land. (…) I can take the buried stone from my heart and plant it here, restoring land, restoring culture, restoring myself.” Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

Less machines

While reading about the «Workshop in Rotterdam: How to Build a Bike Generator», discovered the larger solution scenarios for human powered societies, that tackle much more then climate crises and fossil consumption. They present integrated solutions to increase biodiversity, reduce city concentration, production near place of consumption, better health, sustainable farming, better soils and food, more wellbeing. All of that with less machines and more human power, as envisioned in the Human Power Plant. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).