The Awkward Inevitable

The Awkward Inevitable

These 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 also remember when watching these movies alone during sweltering, humid afternoons on VHS is my knack of rewinding scenes I particularly like. 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.