ARTISTS

Leonor Alvim Brazão was born in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1975 she moved to Brazil where she studied Dance, Music and obtained her degree of Visual Communication from Mackenzie University.

Back in Portugal in 1988, she started an advertising career as a Graphic Designer and Art Director. She worked in several multinational companies such as J.W.Thompson, Comunicar and Bates Portugal. In 1998 she moved to the US where she continued to develop her artistic work exhibiting regularly. In Texas she was selected for the inaugural exhibition of the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas. Since living in VA she is working for Abrakadoodle, an art education company, where she is the artist in residence.

In 2008 Brazão had two works selected to display permanently in the streets of Washington, DC. In 2010 Leonor Brazão was one of the selected artists to represent Portugal for the Fine Arts 2010 collection to be held in South Africa during the World Cup. Recently, she illustrated a children's story book with stories from the oral tradition of the North of Portugal. Brazão has works in several private and public collections around the world: Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Guatemala, and United States.

http://www.brazao.com

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My artwork is an ongoing narrative of the influences that have governed my life. As I have worked through the images of women and men, family, and cultures, art making has become a process of discovery of those values that give substance to my life. The search has enabled me to reconcile cultural differences, human sexuality, and philosophical beliefs that have ordered and affected my life as a woman.

I was born in a small town in California to Portuguese parents. In the early days the town was very prejudiced and bigoted over anyone that wasn't Swedish or Protestant. However, an early series of the Swedish-Protestant culture for my Master's Thesis enabled me to better understand the conflicting nature of our differences.

My later work dealt with images of women gossiping, aging, divorced, and alone.

My town, its people, my family, culture and religion continue to be a valuable resource for making art. Their cultural and philosophical beliefs have shaped my life. In the process, my art has become a means of defining who I am and to better understand the forces that govern our lives.

Maxine Olson 2010

http://www.maxineolson.com

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Jose L. Santos currently resides at the Artist Building at 300 Summer Street in Boston, MA where he lives and works in a vibrant artist community. In addition, Mr. Santos is an art educator in the Somerville Public Schools. He has been part of numerous solo and group art exhibitions over the years, and in 2004, the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, MA purchased three of his pieces for its permanent collection. Mr. Santos received his Bachelors of Fine Arts and Masters of Science in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA.

http://www.joselsantos.com

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Art Coelho's family farm roots and hands-on heritage began in the San Joaquin Valley. This Fresno County rural experience not only gave him a deep understanding of nature, but from the Dustbowl Okie migrants and hobos who worked for his father(a Wheatville pioneer farmer in Central California)he learned the hard lessons of survival firsthand.

His Portuguese grandparents emigrated from three islands in The Azores archipelago: Pico, São Jorge, and Terceira. His Azorean work is a result of "growing up Portuguese" and participating in the Holy Ghost Festas; and also from his nine pilgrimages made to the nine-island Atlantic chain starting in 1986 when he was a cultural guest of Portugal's Autonomy government there.

Art is a poet, novelist, and short story writer; he has written adventure essays and journalistic articles. He is self-taught as a painter and he considers his study of the masters and his continuing field studies, which led him in 2001 to Van Gogh's Provence(St. Paul's Mausoleum at Saint Remy, southern France)to be at the heart of his work.

http://www.artcoelho.com

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Ana Boulain was born in Lisbon, Portugal, but moved to Madrid, Spain, in 1983. In Madrid, Boulain attended the Art Academy of the Spanish Master, Manuel Arjona, with whom she worked closely. At this stage, her main focus was drawing and oil painting.

In 1997 Ana moved to South Africa and attended the Open Window Art Academy in Pretoria where she explored many techniques within the fields of Fine Arts and Printing. A totally new range of influences soared into her style, coming mainly from lecturers and other South African artists she had the opportunity to work with.

Ana's works are shown in several private and public collections around the world such as Portugal, Spain, Mozambique, South Africa, Guatemala, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and United States. One of her commissions was a special work dedicated to Nelson “Madiba” Mandela. The work entitled “Life” is displayed at the “Nelson Mandela Institute” by the request of the Embassy of Portugal as a contribution from the Portuguese Community residing in South Africa.

Since coming to the United States in August 2004, Ana continues her work and is excited by the new challenges and callings that the American Art market presents.

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João de Brito – was born on São Miguel, Açores, Portugal, he currently resides in California, he travels extensively throughout the world to paint en plein aire, from a early age, he has study art, he’s passionate for expressing himself using impressionist/figurative style.

De Brito has become well-known for his use of vibrant colors that elicit light, life, energy and interpretive landscapes. Having unleashed a fresh creativity – inspired by memories of his homeland, scenes from his many travels abroad – João's oils stimulate the sense of sight to produce emotion and thought. As a result, de Brito’s works appear in galleries, museums, businesses, government agencies and homes around the world.

His works can currently be found at The Hidden Garden Gallery, Liberia - Costa Rica, Thanassi Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, The Foundry Gallery, Berkeley, Hauk Fine Arts, Pacific Grove, Many Hands Gallery, Capitola , Kate Nolan Gallery, Santa Cruz, all in California.

João de Brito has been in many solo and group exhibits, he was featured in the book “Ashes to Life – A Portuguese American Story in Art”. He’s also a member of the Santa Cruz Art League, Provincetown Art Association and The Beachcombers Club, a private arts and letters association in Provincetown.

http://www.joaodebrito.com

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With the advent of mass culture arose the inevitable disconnect between artist and audience. The immediacy of experience is out of practice. It takes the perspective of an artist to communicate this clear cohesion between people and objects - this unusual dichotomy of a person and their surroundings at any given moment.

Michael De Brito presents a unique and personal story on his canvases. Each painting represents another chapter of this ongoing familial tale. The audience is invited to sit with the subjects and examine the ritualistic patterns of a stranger’s life. In a new series of pieces portraying his family in their native country of Portugal, De Brito continues to examine this symbiotic relationship between people and their surroundings.

The focus is not only the subjects themselves, rather the dualism that exists between all the objects in the painting. There is always an unseen relationship between the subjects and their surroundings whether or not the individual is conscious of this connection. Every person and inanimate object plays a role his scenes.

The backdrop is always an isolated place that has changed little over time. What begins to surface is a virtual time lapse — or hourglass — subjected to the ruthless process of time.

http://www.michaeldebrito.com

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Jose Maria is a Portuguese musician based in the U.S. He mixes Portuguese Fado with American Folk, and other styles, quite nice and original. Jose Maria is temporarily living in Girona, Spain.

"The music on this album is a crowning achievement of a very good year. It has been a year of fried octopus, exotic cheeses, marriage, travel, glasses of wine, late night jam sessions and hair-raising adventures swapped across the dinner table. Somewhere in the middle we managed to get some work done and these songs are the result: twelve Jose Maria originals that encapsulate his twenty-six year stay in Virginia, brought to fruition by a backup band of loyal friends only too willing to lend their talents (and their stomachs) to the enviable task of bringing Jose's vision of the world to light. His is a vision of generosity of spirit, joy of life, above all community, and many years from now, when I listen back to this album I will be reminded of two things: not only were these the best of times, but the best of times were still to come. Any day now is today. " —Thomas Gunn, February 2007

http://www.myspace.com/josemariatheclinchfadoboys

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Lara Gularte was nominated by Bitter Oleander Press for "Best New Poets 2010." Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Bitter Oleander, Clackamas Literary Review, Eclipse, The Evansville Review, The Fourth River,The Monserrat Review, Permafrost,Watershed, and the Water-Stone Review, among others. She is an assistant poetry editor for Narrative Magazine. Her poetry has drawn the attention of the "Canadian Centre for Azorean Studies and Research" where one of her poems was published. Gularte's poetic work depicting her Azorean heritage is included in a book of essays called "Imaginarios Luso-Americanos e Acorianos" by Vamberto Freitas.

https://sites.google.com/a/laragularte.com/www/

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