Burlesque Painting

This new series of paintings are an homage to my childhood in the tropical strangeness of my beloved islands of the Philippines. For some reason, growing up watching obscure, lo-budget, B-movie Filipino movies in corrosive yet bittersweet Manila greatly shaped my creative practice in New York where I currently live. I find inspiration in the crudeness, raw quality, and gawky humor in these films that greatly influenced my spontaneous conflict-ridden works that I was known for. The film heroes included in my series are Tolongges, a bumbling yet incredibly lucky cowboy from “A Man Called Tolongges”, a film by Angel Labra and Darna, an otherworldly superheroine who first appeared in Mars Ravelo's comics in the '50s and later on numerous film adaptations in the '70s such as “Darna and the Giants” by Emmanuel Borlaza and Leody Diaz. One thing I do fondly remember was, when watching these movies alone during sweltering, humid afternoons on VHS is my knack of rewinding scenes I particularly like: such as a slight special gesture, an especially mundane yet amusing reaction or something in between that might have reminded me something in the past, an anomaly of my memory--a déjà vu. Once in awhile I would come across a paused scene that would capture my interest--that uniquely “awkward” moment when the frame blurs the line between film and painting, or perhaps a beautiful yet always fleeting dream; that particular frame of a second when the elements seem to collide or the figures fade into obscurity, melding with the background and vice versa where time and space ultimately stood still. These are the moments I plan to emancipate in my paintings. Being in the United States for more than 10 years now has made these images especially nostalgic. Those grainy colors, faded sunsets pulverized on film and obscured adult faces reminds me of my growing up years on the other side of the globe where the lighting is different--slightly warmer or cooler and the air distinct, gritty yet sweeter, that certainly makes it seem like a past life in a forgotten land. Though the images might exist only on the silver screen, oftentimes they appear to have actually happened for me, I just can’t pinpoint where or when, like the moment between waking up and falling asleep. I call this “the awkward inevitable” moment.

Painting:Oil on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:28 W x 24 H x 1 D in

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