Back from Brazil! Photos from the Santuário Nacional de Nossa Senhora Aparecida

I returned from my artist residency in Brazil on June 11. Since then, I've been going through photos, reading my "morning pages" (daily journal entries), and delving into books that I bought during my stay, like this great one on the story of Nossa Senhora Aparecida and why she is so important ito Brazil.After my eight week residency in Bahia, I stayed in São Paulo for an all-too-short six days. One of my favorite parts of my trip- and something I'd been looking forward to for months- was making a visit to the Santuário Nacional de Nossa Senhora Aparecida (national basilica for Nossa Senhora Aparecida). I took a two-hour bus ride from São Paulo to the town of Aparecida to visit the basilica. The image of Aparecida in the photo above is the one that millions of pilgrims visit each year. The basilica itself is the second largest in the world next to the Vatican. Here are a bunch of photos from the basilica, all of them featuring the artwork of the late Cláudio Pastro. I'll keep adding to my Brazil photos at my Nossa Senhora Suite page, where you can also contribute to the project!