painter...

My Art aims to serve the community by working with socially provocative themes dealing with gender and race issues, socio-economic issues, ageism, immigration issues, as well as the struggles faced by the marginalized sector of our society in both local and global level. I am currently working on a series called ”Beggars and Saints”, Images of beggars I have taken from my travels in third-world countries: India, China, Philippines, and Mexico. Another series in the works is “Beggars and Saints- America”: Images of the homeless and the working poor in America. 

In my new works-in-progress, I chose the “Technique Mixte’, a method of painting that uses alternate layers of tempera and oil. It is really a poetic metaphor in using old world technique in dealing with new global problems. I find that by using a very dense dark background to highlight my figure, it forces the spectator to focus on the figure and, hopefully, provoke him/her into thinking of the issue presented. The “technique mixte”, will allow for greater luminosity and depth in terms of tones and values of the form.  The 19^th century drawing technique would create a realistic form which compliments the wet-on-wet method. In essence, I aim to work in the traditions of the old masters to present new problems.