Day 7 was our last day at the Reserve before we’d be embarking on a boat journey, so we were all busily working on our projects and presentations. We were expected to present our ideas, no matter in what form, on the last day of the residency. For me, I knew that the real art-making would happen when I returned to the studio. But my thoughts and impressions were definitely already being formed with this experience. I wrote a statement that I think I would like to use on a video, which will probably be as metaphorical as the other two I’ve done in the past about melting ice and coral reef degradation. With this investigation, I think I have assembled more video footage than ever before, so it might be longer than the earlier ones.

But the one thing I’ve decided is that my thoughts, narrative, ideas—will not be spoken. I want them to appear overlaid in English on the screen somehow. I want the audio to be in Portuguese and an indigenous language. So what I did that day was work with Bruna Curcio, a very able producer of LABverde, who carefully translated my writing into Portuguese and then recorded it for me. I also wanted to have the same statement recorded in an Indigenous language so that the reality of the Amazon was complete. After all, it was indigenous before it was Portuguese. Today it is a blend, and I believe it is the meeting of those two that will help save our planet. I asked Sioduhi if he would help by paraphrasing my thoughts in his native Piratapuya language, known as Tukano in Portuguese. But it was so noisy in the reading room that day, we planned to postpone his recording for a quiet time on the boat.

Everyone was scrambling to get their work done. One of the things I did during free time that day was to return to my favorite place by the pond and play with some collage ideas reminiscent of my use of burnt wood in earlier paintings. I had collected some sticks and wood as I was walking, and decided I would play with them at my favorite spot by the pond. I did some fun experimental studies, but couldn’t take any sticks out of the reserve so all that’s left is the documentation.

Laryssa, who was assigned to take our pictures, was busily making appointments with all of us. We met down by the pond and she photographed me playing with a new idea, a combination of drawing and the materials around me.

I also just continued to take photographs of the foliage that so enchanted me.

Before dinner, we had a wonderful presentation by a scientist from Natura who lives in Pará where Natura has a lab. She spoke to us about their research and shared examples of many ingredients they have gathered from the Amazon, which they research and sometimes distill into ingredients for their cosmetic products.

One of the goals of Natura is to link their products with nature, and in particular, the Amazon. Thus it was so fitting that they were sponsoring all the local members of our residency that year. What was also special was that three members of the company were with us! My wonderful boat roommate Ana Julia Novaes and her colleague Bruna Coletti, as well as Renan Neiva. Bruna and Ana were involved with marketing and PR, while Renan was responsible for product development. Happily, they all spoke English and periodically helped translate for me. Richard and I have been invited to visit their headquarters in São Paulo, which we are looking forward to doing when we get there.

After dinner, there were two interventions by the sound artists of our group. Yoichi was first with an amazing 30-minute composition made of his music, his recordings in the forest, as well as earlier recordings of cracking ice from the Arctic. After Yoichi, Vagné L., a musician from Bahia, shared his amazing music which was made with many electrical explosions.