TETHERED

Medium: Acrylic and charcoal on creased paper

Size: 812.8x782.3mm or 32x30.8in

Date: 2018

In Tethered, I superimpose charcoal drawings of Los Angeles apartments over self-portraits painted with acrylic.

I maintain vivid memories of living in a one-bedroom apartment with my siblings, mother and aunt. The experiences of our apartment building, the driveway and the surrounding neighborhood are intertwined with my memories growing up with my family. The apartment was not just a container of our past: it was a defining feature of my childhood and our lives. Looking back now, I cannot separate the physical dwelling from the layers of meanings I attached to it. We are tethered to the past events that shape our identities.

Canvass

Medium: Acrylic, chalk and colored pencil on creased paper

Size: 546.1x528.3mm or 21.5x20.8in

Date: 2018

Canvass has been through several stages of editing. It was folded, painted and scribbled on. I used chalk to draw buildings and traced bus map lines with colored pencil. Then, it was cut and painted over in black acrylic. I worked conscientiously with a large paintbrush, revealing and concealing earlier layers as I saw fit. The painted ground and its composition changed to a great extent while its subject matter stayed much the same.

The Fringe

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal and watercolor on paper

Size: 800.1x990.6mm or 31.5x39in

Date: 2018

Los Angeles has always organized itself around the car. As politicians, economists and urban planners draw and redraw the highways on the city map, the bus-riding communities carry on in the fringes of the city. The Fringe focuses on Los Angeles bus riders who persevere in a metropolitan city dominated by cars.

In Margins

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal, colored pencil and watercolor on paper

Size: 800.1x1073.15mm or 31.5x42.25in

Date: 2018

I look at the system of highways that divide the city between the wealthy car-owners above and the low-income bus-riders below, serving as a microcosm of contemporary society. This contemporary world is a dystopia for those that are marginalized by the system created by others.

Enclosures

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal and watercolor on paper

Size: 781.05x1104.9mm or 30.75x43.5in

Date: 2018

In Enclosures, I reflect on over-arching concepts that defined me as a child and ones that define me now as a young adult. I consider labels such as "low-income," "first generation," and "single-parent family" and how they help me connect with like-minded others. They give me strength to persevere through difficult situations. Yet the same labels can be said to alienate me from people with unfamiliar backgrounds or make me wary of undemanding circumstances. Labels have the power to clarify goals and help one succeed, but they are a double-edge sword: they can also restrict one's self from intellectual and personal growth.

The Chasm

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal, graphite, pastel and watercolor on paper

Size: 787.4x1104.9mm or 31x43.5in

Date: 2018

"A half-forsaken chasm of time," is a quote from Kobo Abe in his book, The Ruined Map. In The Ruined Map, the narrator's half-forsaken chasm was a puzzling, unresolved mystery: the sudden disappearance of a man. The forsaken chasm that split the previous generation from my own was the moment my family emigrated to the United States. Being the first generation to move from the Philippines, my family and I have had to abandon ties to our pasts to establish our futures in the U.S.

Thought Must Be Divided

Medium: Charcoal, colored pencil and watercolor on paper

Size: 768.35x1104.9mm or 30.25x43.5in

Date: 2018

In Do What You Will Essays, Aldous Huxley proclaimed, "Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself." He suggested that at the instance we open our eyes, humans immediately draw conclusions about the environment, ourselves and others. We "see" dividers between things to interpret our world. We divide the world into parts consistent with our preconceived notions before we come to understand our intentions. Humans have a desire to maintain consistent ideas about the world, despite having founded those ideas on erroneous assumptions.

A City of Walls

Medium: Charcoal and watercolor on paper

Size: 793.75x1066.8mm or 31.25x42in

Date: 2018

A City of Walls aims to discuss the relationship between people and “walls.” I define walls as both built and immaterial barriers that humans create—city borders, parking lines, crosswalks, citizenship rights and Internet bandwidths. Communication, education, socioeconomic and generational gaps are immaterial walls that separate individuals from each other.

Sub-Human

Medium: Acrylic and charcoal on paper

Size: 781.05x838.2mm or 30.75x33in

Date: 2018

What is the relationship between the physical environment and our daily lives? Sub-Human hones in on the bus-riding community in Los Angeles and its relationship with the city's pervading car culture. We bus-riders make do with the environment, adapting to policy and urban development changes imposed on us. Yet it cannot detract from the feeling of being less than human—sub-human, if you will—because the less-advantaged ones are expected to cope with the consequences of our car-obsessed landscape.

Divides and Disparities

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal, graphite and watercolor on creased paper

Size: 1079.5x762mm or 42.5x30in

Date: 2018

I refer to the Economic Policy Institute's 2013 findings on the average incomes of the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent in each state to create Divides and Disparities. Twenty-five U.S. states are placed in order from highest to lowest in income inequality, with New York and Connecticut having the largest inequalities between each of their top 1 percent and bottom 99 percent.

I attempt to look at socioeconomic inequality in the context of states and the nation as a whole. I paint self-portraits in a grid and use contrast to model the face. The starker contrast serves as a symbol for larger income gaps in each U.S. state. Roads and rivers connect across state borders.

One and the Other

Medium: Acrylic, charcoal, graphite and watercolor on creased paper

Size: 1079.5x762mm or 42.5x30in

Date: 2018

I illustrate self-portraits with cartoon-like facial features in a grid format and superimpose apartment buildings over them. Strong diagonal lines suggest an interplay between the portraits, architectural elements and the grid.

Diverge

Medium: Acrylic and watercolor on paper

Size: 800.1x1073.15mm or 31.5x42.25in

Date: 2018

In Diverge, I attempt to discuss the language barriers experienced when living in a foreign country where I do not speak the predominant language. I use stenciling, repetition and layering to create a radial composition in order to echo the way that sound is transmitted in speech. Verbal communication is a way to connect with others, but misunderstanding and miscommunication can often cause trouble for those involved, especially when the parties are speaking two or more different languages.