“Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”

-Jasper Johns

My painting process begins with a drawing. I take a photograph of my sketch, then manipulate the image on Photoshop, translate it onto another computer program that the laser machine can read. Through a series of laser light pulses, I carve the image onto gesso primed cardboard of Balikbayan boxes, before I place the cardboard pieces back together to create the whole image.

This ongoing new body of work began in the summer of 2023 during my artist fellowship and residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), and also at a ceramic studio where I’ve been learning to hand model in clay. The sculptures reference vernacular and hand-made processes from across the Philippine diaspora, and forms traditionally associated with anitu figures. The glazes are made in the ceramic studio, from raw materials and through a series of experimentation.