"Hindi Dahil Bago, Bagay. Hindi Dahil Moderno, Terno" Fine Art Print

"I paint visual narratives drawn from a broad range of real and imagined stories, shifting between the deeply personal and the socio-political." I was born in 1972 on the slopes of Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines, and my path to the studio was far from traditional. During my youth, I spent my vacations helping out on my grandfather's rice farm in Pangasinan, learning firsthand the rhythms of agricultural life, while my other grandfather worked as an artist in Manila. This mix of raw rural labor and urban creativity stayed with me. Before committing full-time to painting, I spent fourteen years working as a museum curator, backed by a background in biology. That world taught me how to observe, archive, and analyze the details of life. These influences originally led me to document the agricultural heritage of my youth, specifically the rice fields. However, my practice truly deepened through an unconventional, entirely online mentorship with master painter Marcel Antonio. Communicating across digital spaces, he trained me in Verdaccio—a classical underpainting technique—which I adapted into a modified version that uniquely anchors my complex, figurative stories. Today, my work is inspired by the sheer variety of real and imagined human stories. I don’t believe in confining myself to a single theme; instead, I follow whatever narrative demands to be told. On any given day, that could mean moving from quiet reflections on love and death to biting, satirical commentary on socio-political structures. When you look at my work, you will find that the pieces are intentionally cryptic. I like to build them much like a puzzle. By blending structured layouts and bold colors with common, universal symbols, I embed hidden meanings throughout the canvas. My goal is to give you an immediate visual connection on the surface, while inviting you to slowly decode and piece together the deeper, concealed subtexts over time. While painting is what I do most days, my interest in sculpture and three-dimensional installation comes from a desire to push these narrative puzzles off the flat surface. I want to turn my concepts into tactile forms that share the same physical space as you. Over the years, this focus on our shared human stories has allowed my work to travel far beyond our borders, finding a home in nineteen countries so far.