13 portraits from Luzianes-Gare, Portugal
Permanent marker and acrylic on canvas, 100 × 80 cm

This series began in the rural village of Luzianes-Gare, Portugal, where I created 13 portraits of people living in the area. Each portrait was embedded within the symbolic framework of the Gifts of the Spirit — a book by Dane Rudhyar: author, modernist composer, painter, and pioneer of transpersonal astrology.

I chose the structure of the zodiac signs as a way to explore the individuation process — both theirs and mine.
At the time, I had returned to Portugal after an adult life in Germany, and this series became part of my attempt to reconnect with my childhood landscape. It was also a confrontation with identity — a kind of reenactment of adaptation, dislocation, and return.

The process became more than personal.
It opened into something larger: a need for integrative communication, a symbolic language to hold cultural complexity —
between villagers, between places, and within the self.

This work is rooted in the hope for dialogue —
that the experience of portraiture, shared space, and symbolic layering
might contribute to an intercultural understanding that goes beyond the canvas.
That these individuals, by being part of the work, might also witness something in themselves —
and that the resonance might ripple beyond the village and into a broader field of meaning.

To everyone who supported, participated, listened, shared, and held this process with me:
Thank you.
It has been a deeply transformative experience —
and one that continues to meet me beyond space and time.

Fire
 1. A Portrait of Hélio C. Mateus - Adaptation or the organic, creative act
 2. A Portrait of Paulo Dias - Simplicity or Humbleness
 3. A Portrait of Teresa Bernardino - Camaraderie or the ability to live together

Earth
 1. A Portrait of José Valério - Letting go
 2. A Portrait of Ruja - Tolerance or Anti-Fascism
 3. A Portrait of Miriam Hockey - Personal integrity

Water
 1. A Portrait of José Caetano - Family or knowing where you belong to
 2. A Portrait of Margarida Fontinha - Non-identification or the will to integrate
 3. A Portrait of Dirk Morgen - To serve

Air
 1. A Portrait of Birte - The art of allowing/making things happen
 2. A Portrait of Rui Fontinha - Serenity or Elegance
 3. A Portrait of Adriano Martins - Courage or the power of waking up in a new day

The 13th. Self Portrait- The human potential or the ability to dream and to fail