Dalagang Pilipina
Personal Project
The gallery before you is a collection of my latest work illustrating the Dalagang Filipina in various states of color. Inspired by the adaptation of the latest Barbie movie, the refreshingly dainty colors of the Bridgerton TV Series, and finding my old photo as a kid proudly wearing my baro’t saya for school.
The series is also a love note to the lullaby my mom used to sing to me and my siblings as children, Ang Dalagang Pilipina.
Kabaitan ay Kagandahan (Kindness is Beauty)
Kabaitan (Kah-bah-ee-tahn) means kindness. To me, this piece is a commentary on the term model-minority. Cinderella's kindness as part of her character is her greatest strength and I empathized with her on that as a kid. For Filipinos, the title is still felt by the current generation, though we try our best to break through that barrier. Her tears are my tears. It's for the struggle - the struggle to push through, and be better.
Taga Bundok (Of the Mountain)
Taga Bundok (Tah-gah Boon-dok) is an idea of retelling the Rapunzel story. The pose might be familar to many Filipinos of a painted lady holding her hair in the forest - a well known painting called The Rape of Sugbo by Manuel Pañares. Her story in that painting has the undertones of the Philippine's history of colonization. For my piece, I felt that it was fitting for Rapunzel's story. However, in my moment, I wanted to capture her freedom in the mountains - at peace and undisturbed.