Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus will freeze.

Kapamilya: My Senior Exhibit

I am not one to draw preliminary sketches and meticulously plan the composition of my pieces.  Instead, I like to let happenstance and my ever-evolving ideas dictate how a final piece will look.  I begin by brainstorming to come up with possible concepts, materials and approaches for the piece and then quickly begin the act of making without any further planning.  This process has allowed me to make art in the creative manner and artistic style I enjoy most.  I decided to use this approach for my senior exhibit and combine it with an entity I hold near and dear to my heart.

The word “kapamilya” means family member or relative in Tagalog, the Philippine dialect.  The family is an integral aspect of Philippine culture, with members depending heavily on each other for support and abundance.  However, as a Filipino-American, I believe it is important to become an individual and shape your own life while staying true to your family’s beliefs.  To me, kapamilya is about the dynamics and congruency of a family that stem from each member’s role.  I kept in mind this concept of togetherness as well as individualism when creating portraits for my family members.

I worked on all the pieces at the same time, allowing them to grow and evolve together, shaping each other and shaping the way I approached them.  I learned from one portrait to the next what worked and what did not.  As experimentation turned into knowledge, my process became a metaphor for the way a family grows based on the successes and failures of one another, along with how each member can maintain a distinct identity despite the family’s commonalities.

My family has always supported and encouraged my love of art.  They appreciate my talents when I doubt myself, and they encourage me to always learn and grow.  I am pursuing my passion because I know there are people out there who are rooting for me to succeed.  In learning about the people that shaped who I am today, I hope you learn a little bit about me in each of the portraits as well.

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My show is up until Saturday!  Go check it out!  :)

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I’m currently reading a great book called It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation by 29-year-old author, filmmaker, and college professor M.K. Asante, Jr. [who very much may be the next MLK Jr. in my opinion]. It’s about the horrible state of hip-hop today and what can be done to change and improve the future.  I felt like this quote from the book really spoke to me so I made a poster of it.

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Sneak peek of a piece from my Senior Studio class.  I’m making mixed-media portraits of family and friends using different materials, mediums, styles, colors, and techniques to illustrate who they are and what they mean to me.  So excited to start working on it again!

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We will Prevail.  We are Virginia Tech.

I made this piece in December in response to the shooting threat and Officer Crouse’s death.  I wanted to make a piece that juxtaposes the images of chaos with the peace and strength of our school and community.

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WHITE RABBIT

Directed by Cassandra Nguyen with the help of Ani Mittra, Phil Cho, Matt Yourshaw, Ken Foglietti, Justin Sottile-Jackson, and myself.

This is a video project I worked on with five other people in my digital video class this semester.  We did everything from conception of the idea, creating a screenplay, filming, sound production, animation, video editing, promotions, and publicity.  A LOT of work, but well worth it.  I learned a lot.  Enjoy!

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Algonkian Park at Sunset.

I wanted to create a story with the pictures I took.  Can you interpret it?

Plus, I am ADDICTED to Lightroom.  supp Mikey JayJay Urgel?!?!!

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My work in progress for April.  Need to add more details to the flowers in the front, but I’m almost done.  Hope you like it so far!

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mikeyjayjay:

Photo credit: Katrina Villavicencio

yayyy! and cool quote insertion :)

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Tides
15x17
acrylic on bristol paper

First time I ever really used acrylic paint.  I was frustrated with using acrylic at first because it dries so much quicker than oil paint [my preferred medium], so I wasn’t able to get the smooth and blended look I usually prefer.  However, in the end I think it turned out much better with the texture because it more beautifully displays the roughness of the waves and the connection between the sky and water.

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The Older the Wiser, I guess.

For the past two weeks I’ve been taking open studio drawing classes, and I must say it’s been a breath of fresh air.  The last time I did consistent figure drawing was Spring ‘10, with the exception of a figure painting I did this past semester.  Needless to say I’ve been out of practice for awhile so it’s been nice to get back into the habit.

When I first walked in I thought I was a hotshot with my three years of experience, drawing like I knew everything there was to know about art.  I quickly learned otherwise.  I’m actually one of the youngest people in the class—most of them are older with graying hair and arching backs.  And man, their works were incredible:  perfectly-proportioned figures, shadow shapes and highlights on point, beautiful sketches.  Well I felt like crap, and was pretty discouraged.  I felt like such a n00b who didn’t know anything about drawing.

But then I realized that they were all in that class because they’ve probably been doing art their whole lives.  They’ve probably been working at this craft for decades, compared to my three hotshot years.  Twenty years ago they were probably where I am right now, looking around at other people’s work, thinking they weren’t talented enough.  And look at where they are now.  I can be impatient at times, and I want to be good right now.  But obviously that’s not how it works.  It takes years of practice and learning to become truly successful at something.

I was talking to one of the older people, one that seemed less experienced than the others.  He told me he was an engineer and had just started getting into art.  His work dragged slower than the rest, and compared to him I was actually doing pretty well.  He said it was hard for him to work quickly and loosely and to “just go with the flow” because his entire life and career was based on being meticulous and paying attention to every detail.  The reason he signed up for the class was to get out of the habit of thinking like an engineer and more as an artist.  At the end of the class his work wasn’t as far along as the others, but it was pretty good, and of course perfectly proportioned.

Persevere, I must.  It isn’t going to happen overnight, but it will happen.  And hopefully, if I’m lucky and work hard enough, I’ll be where they are some day.