Filipino Market Scenes
This collection consists of paintings depicting market scenes and still lifes in the Philippines. I relied mainly on photographs taken of open markets in Metro-Manila, Taal and my home province in Mindanao. To me, the "palengke" was the most exciting and vibrant place to observe and enjoy the intense activities of people and above all, the wonderful sights and smells of things in the market, especially the tropical fish,fruits, vegetables, flowers and delicacies. For me, the reward is the pleasure of painting and seeing these nostalgic sights - reminders of my past and my country of origin.
Political and Social Comments
Today, Filipino-Americans constitute the second largest Asian-American group in the U.S. Yet today, stories about our national history and immigration to this country are rarely heard, and if so, are not often understood and appreciated in their distinct political and human contexts. It is the awareness of this particular lack of conversation in the cultural scene that propelled me to start working on a visual narrative/commentary on the Filipino saga. The story starts with two densely packed synopses of the major colonial influences in the Philippines - Spanish for more than three centuries, and American for half a century - and how they have impacted the native culture. Another piece deals with a little known fact that there were Filipinos living in Louisiana as far back as 1763 and probably earlier. Escaping Spanish galleon ships in Mexico, they found their way to the bayous of that state.
The painting shows Filipinos stumping on dried shrimps, a food preservation process they introduced. Shortly after official American colonization of the country at the turn of the 20th century, there was large-scale immigration of Filipinos to the United States. Cheap labor was needed to fill the shortage resulting from the moratorium on Chinese labor import. The first wave of immigrants consisted mainly of men, recruited by labor contractors to work in Hawaiian pineapple and sugar plantations, agricultural fields in the West Coast, gold mines and fish canneries in Alaska. Several paintings deal with the salient experiences of these workers and later waves of immigrants, as gleaned from various historical sources. The work entitled "Pinoy" is an encapsulated presentation of the Pinoy, which is the informal term for Filipino. It shows the wide gamut of racial characteristics that make up the ethnic group as well as the various objects and artifacts that are identified with the people. There are commentary pieces that reflect my opinions on certain issues facing the Filipino diaspora and politics in the Philippines and here. One piece is an ironic take on the infamous 3000 + pairs of shoes that Imelda Marcos was said to have owned when she and her husband ruled the impoverished nation.
This set of works constitutes a portion of an on-going project that is meant to tell a more comprehensive story. I chose to work in a very accessible, shorthand manner of storytelling. Juxtaposing graphic, painterly and collage techniques help to create a hybridized stylistic mélange, which I think, reflects the transmogrified culture of the Filipinos, the result of the pervasive and diverse colonial pressures on native society.
Abstract Expressions
What attracts me to abstract expressionism is the immediacy and freedom it opens up for the artist. For me, the act of painting is not only very sensuous and seductive but also very challenging because it is unpredictable and tricky. This set of paintings were mostly done earlier in my career. Now and then I go back to this style partly to "unwind" and refresh my spirits.
I like to describe my works as bold, unprogrammed journeys of brush and paint. I start out with a vague mixture of anxiety,fear and anticipation, like jumping into a white sea without a life jacket. Without any set notions, I freely draw with paint,letting my hands "find" forms to express a certain emotional sensation or mood. I liken the process to some kind of "spatial vagrancy", when a mysterious kind of creative alchemy occurs - the hand gropes, roams around and explores for unknown forms, perhaps in my unconscious, then the forms somehow magically direct the hand. Like in poetry-writing, the work in progress suddenly assumes a life of its own, suggesting to the maker further moves and final resolutions. To me, this represents a precious dialectic between the conscious and the unconscious that creates a vibrant tension in the process. The unidentifiable or suggestive shapes in my paintings dash, dance ,jostle, fight, scream, yawn or simply congregate. They constitute a personal and idiosyncratic vocabulary, which I hope offer opportunities for open-ended readings, childlike fun and sensuous adventures.
Landscapes and Still Life
The landscape paintings are my impressions of sites I have visited and lived in. They are rendered in my own realistic style. These landscapes include: The Philippine Islands, New England, the Mid-western landscape of the United States and other locations. In my sojourns to the Philippines, I took pictures of the slums in the urban areas. I am working on portrayals of their chaos and disheveled states, trying to find beauty in them, nonetheless.
This collection consists of paintings depicting market scenes and still lifes in the Philippines. I relied mainly on photographs taken of open markets in Metro-Manila, Taal and my home province in Mindanao. To me, the "palengke" was the most exciting and vibrant place to observe and enjoy the intense activities of people and above all, the wonderful sights and smells of things in the market, especially the tropical fish,fruits, vegetables, flowers and delicacies. For me, the reward is the pleasure of painting and seeing these nostalgic sights - reminders of my past and my country of origin.
Political and Social Comments
Today, Filipino-Americans constitute the second largest Asian-American group in the U.S. Yet today, stories about our national history and immigration to this country are rarely heard, and if so, are not often understood and appreciated in their distinct political and human contexts. It is the awareness of this particular lack of conversation in the cultural scene that propelled me to start working on a visual narrative/commentary on the Filipino saga. The story starts with two densely packed synopses of the major colonial influences in the Philippines - Spanish for more than three centuries, and American for half a century - and how they have impacted the native culture. Another piece deals with a little known fact that there were Filipinos living in Louisiana as far back as 1763 and probably earlier. Escaping Spanish galleon ships in Mexico, they found their way to the bayous of that state.
The painting shows Filipinos stumping on dried shrimps, a food preservation process they introduced. Shortly after official American colonization of the country at the turn of the 20th century, there was large-scale immigration of Filipinos to the United States. Cheap labor was needed to fill the shortage resulting from the moratorium on Chinese labor import. The first wave of immigrants consisted mainly of men, recruited by labor contractors to work in Hawaiian pineapple and sugar plantations, agricultural fields in the West Coast, gold mines and fish canneries in Alaska. Several paintings deal with the salient experiences of these workers and later waves of immigrants, as gleaned from various historical sources. The work entitled "Pinoy" is an encapsulated presentation of the Pinoy, which is the informal term for Filipino. It shows the wide gamut of racial characteristics that make up the ethnic group as well as the various objects and artifacts that are identified with the people. There are commentary pieces that reflect my opinions on certain issues facing the Filipino diaspora and politics in the Philippines and here. One piece is an ironic take on the infamous 3000 + pairs of shoes that Imelda Marcos was said to have owned when she and her husband ruled the impoverished nation.
This set of works constitutes a portion of an on-going project that is meant to tell a more comprehensive story. I chose to work in a very accessible, shorthand manner of storytelling. Juxtaposing graphic, painterly and collage techniques help to create a hybridized stylistic mélange, which I think, reflects the transmogrified culture of the Filipinos, the result of the pervasive and diverse colonial pressures on native society.
Abstract Expressions
What attracts me to abstract expressionism is the immediacy and freedom it opens up for the artist. For me, the act of painting is not only very sensuous and seductive but also very challenging because it is unpredictable and tricky. This set of paintings were mostly done earlier in my career. Now and then I go back to this style partly to "unwind" and refresh my spirits.
I like to describe my works as bold, unprogrammed journeys of brush and paint. I start out with a vague mixture of anxiety,fear and anticipation, like jumping into a white sea without a life jacket. Without any set notions, I freely draw with paint,letting my hands "find" forms to express a certain emotional sensation or mood. I liken the process to some kind of "spatial vagrancy", when a mysterious kind of creative alchemy occurs - the hand gropes, roams around and explores for unknown forms, perhaps in my unconscious, then the forms somehow magically direct the hand. Like in poetry-writing, the work in progress suddenly assumes a life of its own, suggesting to the maker further moves and final resolutions. To me, this represents a precious dialectic between the conscious and the unconscious that creates a vibrant tension in the process. The unidentifiable or suggestive shapes in my paintings dash, dance ,jostle, fight, scream, yawn or simply congregate. They constitute a personal and idiosyncratic vocabulary, which I hope offer opportunities for open-ended readings, childlike fun and sensuous adventures.
Landscapes and Still Life
The landscape paintings are my impressions of sites I have visited and lived in. They are rendered in my own realistic style. These landscapes include: The Philippine Islands, New England, the Mid-western landscape of the United States and other locations. In my sojourns to the Philippines, I took pictures of the slums in the urban areas. I am working on portrayals of their chaos and disheveled states, trying to find beauty in them, nonetheless.