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Sharing more of the extended research & photography of my month long ARROZidency artist-in-residence. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom to start at the beginning. View from a computer for the full experience! As another reminder, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For the full extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: It was Sunday, February 2, 2025. The rain was making its way through San Francisco & I had a ticket to the Asian Art Museum's free admission day. The rain was coming down & I remember being on the phone with my partner in the morning, asking him if I should still go, because it was raining & I wanted to be cozy. 😅 He encouraged me to go, because I may never get another chance to experience this again. I got dressed & had a short bike ride over to the museum from my sublet in Nob Hill. I was hoping that even though it was the free admission day, that not many people would be there because it was raining. I was sadly mistaken, haha! It was a bit too crowded for my taste, too noisy, I had a hard time navigating the galleries, some of the galleries were closed for installation, & from what I did get to see, I wasn't really impressed with the exhibitions. However, the main thing I wanted to experience at the museum was the lion dance performance. Having experienced my first lion dance performance just the year prior, I wanted to relive that electrifying feeling again. While the program was sadly so unorganized, the performance itself was so much fun to experience. At this time, having just left LA for this residency as the fires were erupting, I wanted to bring back some good fortune and cast off any lingering bad energy before returning to LA. 🐍 I hope everyone is feeling the energy of rebirth and renewal as we all finish shedding our skin from the year of the wood snake. Now, as we enter the year of the fire horse, I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year, Tết, and Seollal! Fun fact: I was born in the year of the horse (in the 1900s)! The horse is known for being strong, independent & anti-authoritarian by nature. May we all channel our big fire horse energy this year as we dream of a future where authority & hierarchies no longer exist. ❤️🔥🐎 Shout out LionDanceME for their high-energy performance! Here's some photos of their performance from last year. Photographs were created with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. Click any image below to enlarge.
  
  
    
     
 Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
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As I've concluded my main project for my residency, I'm now sharing the rest of my photography, research & experience during my month-long ARROZidency. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom to start at the beginning. View from a computer for the full experience! As another reminder, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: Prior to arriving in San Francisco, I was notified that we would be having a studio visit from a curator at the Asian Art Museum, just a few days after I settled into the studio. It was a bit stressful to prepare some work to present in advance! However, it was also exciting and satisfying. As a residency participant, I was happy I received the full experience that was advertised: the opportunity to connect with curators & other artists. Of course, I could have gone simple & just made a few prints or brought in some older work, but I like making my life more difficult. 🥴 That also wouldn't have really resembled my aesthetic, & I wanted to present something closer to the type of work that I actually make. By now, most people know that my work is mainly lens-based, but in the last decade I've been thinking a lot about grief & offerings to the metaphysical & what this can look like — so, like I've done in the past, I wanted the two practices to meet. A friend pointed out recently that I use a lot of red in my work, & I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since. For this installation, I wanted to stick to a color palette of red, gold & black as closely as possible, similar to the riso prints I made for this project. And although it may seem like hoarding, I promise there's a method to my madness & a reason why I collect so much ephemera on any trips I take, & it's because I know they'll be used again for an installation at some point or repurposed in some way. The installation was untitled, but it combined my newer photography with ephemera collected from recent trips to the Philippines, with each tier serving as a mini altar and offering to each place or item. original mock-up & Final InstallationPictured left is the mock-up of the installation that I'd originally envisioned. As you can see, it had slight edits later, as well as some additions of items I didn't originally photograph for the mock-up. When we think of altars & the spirit realms, we often think of tiers, namely the 3 tiers of the underworld, physical world, & spirit world. Originally, I'd wanted to create a 3-tier installation, which would have made more sense for me, but wall space was limited & I wanted a decent amount of spacing in between columns. I also think a lot about tiers when thinking about the homeland, & the tiered rice paddies throughout our region that have been tended to by generations of ancestors. Everything from the collection of ephemera to the size choice is a reference to the maximalism & space limitations many of us experienced in working class immigrant households. Our family always wanted to maximise any small space to display as many memories as they could share, whether it was small printed photos from family gatherings, or prayer cards wedged into a corner of a frame. Click any image below to enlarge. Installation shots were photographed with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens.
EphemeraMost pictured here were used in the installation. Some ended up not being used, but I photographed them for the purposes of including them in mock-up designs. Some additional misc ephemera ended up being added at the last minute, because I randomly found them later in my junk collection (sadly, not pictured below). I've always been in the practice of collecting ephemera from trips, both as memory keepsakes & also to think about how they could be repurposed in the future. While not all that is shown below ended up being used in the installation, each had its own significance that I look back on fondly. Here's a description list for each item. Click on an image below for its corresponding number, but it will go from left to right. 1. This rosary wasn’t collected in the Philippines. It was left on an altar I made for my late friend Xam, placed there by his mother. It goes on every altar installation I create now, & even though he is gone, it's my small way of inviting him. 2 & 7. Prayer booklets & prayer card in Bisaya & English, & mini statue that I purchased from a religious souvenir shop opposite the basilica in Cebu, where I also purchased my Santo Niño statue (#4). 3. Plane tickets on my first ever trip to Cebu — hopefully not the last trip, because there's still so much more I need to explore on that island! 4. Small wooden Santo Niño statue I purchased at the religious souvenir shop opposite the basilica in Cebu. This is the same statue I brought with me to get blessed during the two Santo Niño Fiestas photographed in my VENERATING AN ICON photo essay project. 5-6, 11. Prayer booklet & prayer cards I purchased at a religious souvenir shop at the Namacpacan Church in Luna, La Union — home of the largest image of the Mama Mary (Apo Baket) across the archipelago. More on this below. 8. Ceramic Santo Niño sculpture I found at a public market while shopping for woven items in San Fernando, La Union. 9. My memory is hazy, but I think I bought this rosary at the religious souvenir shop at Namacpacan Church, or possibly the one in Cebu. 10 & 13. Mama Mary keychain & screenprinted Ilokano prayer cloth from the religious souvenir shop at Namacpacan Church. My original mock-up incorporated the prayer cloth, but the size was so much bigger than everything else, it threw the design off-balance, so I scratched it. 12. Receipt from a clothing shop near the basilica in Cebu. Much like the Vatican in Italy, they JUST started enforcing a dress code only a couple of days before we visited. They wouldn't let me in, because they could see the backs of my knees! I had to find a shop nearby that sold long skirts that I could put over my dress. 14-16. Magnets we bought on the street next to the basilica in Cebu. I ended up not using any of these in the final installation, & instead ended up giving some to my residency host. All of these were photographed on a table outside with my iPhone, then I uploaded them into Canva & used the background remover tool. 😅                 PHOTO PRINTS:Printed digital photos in order of appearance from left column to right column in the installation. Left column of photos were from my 2024 visit to Cebu City to visit the original image of the Santo Niño de Cebu. Left column of photos were from my 2024 visit to Luna, La Union to visit the Apo Baket. You can read more about both trips, the history, research & significance of them in my photo series Return Call. I knew that for this installation, I wanted to include photography from my trip to Cebu, because it was closely related to the work I would be doing in my residency, photographing the Santo Niño Fiestas. However, I decided to include photos of my recent trip to Luna, because similarly to the Santo Niño de Cebu, the Mama Mary in Luna also has miraculous lore behind her dating back to the Spanish colonial period. However, while it's true that her existence in Luna is miraculous, she gets nowhere near as much tourism as the Santo Niño de Cebu does, & seems more like just a local legend instead of an international wonder. I wanted to juxtapose the two, because while I may be Filipina, Cebu & the Bisayas are not my culture, as someone with origins in the Ilokano provinces of the Northern Philippines. I wanted to include something closer to our culture to be more representative of the local history of the region we're from. Photos 1-4 were from Cebu. Photos 5-9 were from Luna. Click an image below to enlarge.          Studio Visits:Lastly, I got to have a few studio visits with some local artists & others. This residency was so busy, because nearly every day I was working on something, going somewhere, meeting someone, or having someone over for a studio visit. Here are some photos from some of the visits I had: Photos by Adrian Discipulo. It was exciting to meet Adrian for multiple reasons. Before starting the residency, I was raising funds & selling some of my work left over from an art fair a few months prior. Adrian ended up contacting me online for one of the prints. When asking for his mailing address, I saw he was based in NorCal & told him I would be there for a month, if he wanted to stop by the studio, because I appreciate trying to meet my buyers when I can. It eases my mind to know who I'm selling to is a decent person & the work will go to a good home. Anyways, he ended up coming by. He is also a photographer, which was fun to have someone to talk about gear with! After getting to know each other a bit, we also learnt that our families are both from the same province in the Philippines, from neighboring towns! The town where my parents went to school & university, next to the town where they were born. It's always exciting to meet someone else from the same province, let alone town! We also got to check out some exhibition openings for San Francisco Art Week over at the Minnesota Street Project galleries, just opposite the studios. I will share these photos later! The soft quality of Adrian's photos was my fav. Thank you for these!
Photos by Ellie Lopez. Ellie is a NorCal-based poet I got to work with on a photography x poetry program for my project MATA ART GALLERY. She ended up coming by to visit & bought some remaining prints. We ended up going on an impromptu visit to the San Francisco botanical garden, where we learnt we both love pro-wrestling, LOL! We had dinner at a vegan restaurant near the garden & ended the night with boba. It was great to spend 1:1 time with someone I kept in touch with online for so long. She was so kind, supportive & generous. Thank you for visiting!
Lastly, my older brother was kind enough to come up to visit me for a few days. He has a fond connection to the Bay, since he lived there for 7 years. We had so much fun doing classic San Francisco stuff, like riding the streetcars (which I haven't done since I was a kid), riding the ferris wheel, eating seafood & ice cream at the pier, & driving up to Petaluma to visit our cousin who had just given birth. He also helped me deinstall & pack up my studio, which felt so bittersweet. The month was so busy, it truly went by so fast. Silly pics from my brother's iPhone below, because I can't always be serious about everything all the time! If you know, you know. *queues entrance music*
Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. This is the last section of the second part of my VENERATING AN ICON documentary photo essay. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1. In case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: For this project, I was really excited to go back to my documentary photo roots. In my earlier photo work, I focused on documenting multicultural communities, sometimes with a special focus on their spiritual practices. I've documented many communities from Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism, Khmer Buddhism, Krishna Consciousness, to precolonial ritualistic practices of Mesoamerica, to Native American pow wows. Religion and spirituality weren’t central to my upbringing, but it was always present. Though I wasn’t raised Catholic, I was excited to document a community tied to my culture & the history of the Philippines. There's some major reasons why my parents decided not to raise me religious, which was a bold move for immigrant parents of their generation, but I'm grateful for that choice they made in raising me. Their choice allowed me to deepen my curiosity for diverse spiritual practices & led me to discover, study & practice my own spiritual & metaphysical beliefs in my day-to-day life & art. Anyways, a lot has changed since my early documentary photo days. I first started off shooting strictly black & white film. I eventually started shooting color film once I lost access to a lab & discovered color film was cheaper to process. A couple of years ago I decided to expand my toolkit and purchased a digital camera for the first time, which I've enjoyed practicing & playing with. I recently took an advanced lighting class & hoped to expand my toolkit even further. One thing I can say for sure is that these are some of the hardest photos I've ever edited. The church banquet hall had all sorts of different tinted overhead lightbulbs. I had to do so much masking to color correct different parts of the room in these photos, which was a time-consuming challenge on top of not compromising the high saturation aesthetic I go for in my color work. All this to say, after taking this lighting class, I have a new appreciation for using flash & wonder if this could have been remedied had I brought my flash with me this time? Flash still intimidated me at that time, & after taking this class, I hope I can apply the skills I've learnt to continue documenting cultural events like these & producing the best images I can each time. I'm trying not to be scared of flash anymore! Check out the photos & let me know what you would have done differently! Images were photographed using my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. Click on an image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.  Even more people brought their Santo Niños this time & it was so cute seeing the diverse kinds that people owned! Some titas even shared interesting stories with me about how they came to own their Santo Niños. One tita told me she allegedly rescued her Santo Niño from the trash. 🤣 She legit told me this. Y'all think she was telling the truth or was she lying at church?
 
 
 
This is where all the titas got up & started dancing with their Santo Niños! France on the right with the sheer shawl dancing with the Santo Niño I brought from Cebu. 🕺🏻
       Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
The second part of this 3-part series is split into 3 sections, as it's quite long. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1.
Because these blog posts cannot support video embeds if there is a lot of media content, here is a short video from my YouTube channel that documents part of the Sinulog performance at the second Santo Niño Fiesta we attended. It was so cute seeing the titas get up & dance with their Santo Niños! The last part will have photos of the performance, but it just hits different watching the movements & hearing the sounds of the music & singing. Video was filmed on my iPhone.
And again, in case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags:
For my main residency project only, visit:
For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit:
2.3 will be the last section of part 2 of my main residency project series!
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. The second part of this 2-part series will, in itself, be split into 3 sections, as it's quite long. If you are starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from part 1. And, in case you missed it, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For an extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: The second Santo Niño Fiesta we visited was at Saint Augustine Catholic Church in South San Francisco (which is its own city separate from the City of San Francisco). SSF is the city next to San Bruno, where the first fiesta took place. It is also adjacent to Daly City, where a large FilAm community resides. South San Francisco was just a BART ride away from where I was staying in San Francisco proper. While the interior architecture of this church wasn't as interesting as the first church, there was a lot more to look at within the exterior church complex itself. It reminded me a lot of the churches I've visited in the Philippines. The church was also a lot more spacious, with more room for the Sinulog performance later on. I'll share those photos in parts 2.2-2.3! This event was similar to the last one, where they had a procession for the Santo Niño, Mass, & people brought their own Santo Niños to be blessed. It was actually very exciting to see more people bring their images, & to see the many diverse kinds! Images were photographed using my Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. Click on an image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.
   
   
Sections 2.2 & 2.3 of part 2 are forthcoming, which will contain both photo & video!
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. First, & hopefully not last, trip to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines! Despite several generalisations about Mindanao, I've never been influenced by these misconceptions, & it has always been a place I've wanted to visit. I've always been enamored by their gorgeous art aesthetics, music, culture, & admire them for their colonial resistance. So glad I finally got to visit, esp with the guidance of brilliant creatives & friends, but I hope I'm able to make it back again to further explore the island & culture! Iligan City in the northern Mindanaon province of Lanao Del Norte was the first stop on our 9-day visit. The main languages spoken here are Bisaya, Tagalog, & English is also commonly spoken throughout the islands. Lanao del Norte & the region surrounding Lake Lanao is the ancestral land of the Maranao, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Mindanao. They are one of the largest Islamic groups in the so-called Philippines. Below are photos of Bai Ming, a Maranao matriarch, who invited me to peek into her world. Her & her family import or create all the goods sold in her shop, Ming's Collection. She consented to me photographing her, & in return I'd love to share about her business! You can find them here on Facebook (if you've got an account), or look them up on Google Maps. All photos below are from my Nikon ZF. Also first time using my Pocket Dispo lens, gifted to me by my friend & photography collague, Noah B! The lens is great & love the softer texture it creates, but it's def not for everything. It was fun to take it out on a spin for the first time on this trip tho, & hopefully I can find some good use out of it again in the future. My film photos from this trip will probably come later this year! View photos from a computer for the full experience. Click any image below to enlarge.  
 
MISC ILIGAN...Here's some more photos exploring Iligan City! Starting with the amazing view from Fat Pauly's. The photo of the lighthouse almost looks like a postcard images & the swirl of the clouds during sunset were unbelievable.
Paseo de SantiagoIf you're into Spanish historic destinations, check out Paseo de Santiago. This park is a paid tourist attraction along the ocean, & is named after Spanish "explorer", Santiago de la Cruz, who is credited for "discovering" the Iligan Bay in the 16th Century. While this is considered a historic destination, I've read that the park itself is a newer tourist attraction. Aside from the park & lush scenery, they also have food vendors, occasionally host events & offer rentals. This park has paid admission & honors senior discounts. 
  
 "LAPU LAPU — He is the first famous person written in our history that bravely and gallantly defended our land and our race against foreign invaders on April 2, 1521 known as the "Battle of Mactan" that resulted to the death of Ferdinand Magellan and the defeat of his Spanish and Portuguese forces." Tambo Public MarketMy mother came with me on this trip to Mindanao this time. I can't stress enough how I'm at the point now where I'm starting to feel like the parent, haha! Anyways, before our trip, she said she hadn't been to Mindanao since the 1970's. And she mentioned one thing she really wanted to bring back to La Union was dried fish, claiming that is a really nice cuisine they have there. My friend was kind enough to bring us to Tambo Public Market, where she was able to buy dried pusit (squid), & other fish. These are typically fried & served with garlic rice, eggs & some sort of veggie side dish for breakfast. 🦑 I'm sure some of you can tell that these interior photos in the market are dark inside. I had to use quite a high ISO. Once bringing them into Lightroom, they were very noisy. I do not recommend Lightroom's AI noise removal tool, as it makes the photos look way too fake. Instead, use the option to manually reduce the noise. They won't be perfect & noise-free, but the tool does help, in moderation.     Beadwork Workshop at Espasyo Creative HUbGot to peel off for a day to take an introductory beadwork workshop at Espasyo Creative Hub. Not only do they occasionally host creative workshops, they also have a restaurant & a storefront where they sell local handmade goods, crafts, art & even some sweet treats hehe. As you can see, the Pocket Dispo lens is not great for close-ups. So that's something to keep in mind when using this lens. It is a lot like a disposable camera in this way! For those of us who are old enough to remember using disposable cameras in our youth... haha!
Jeepneys of IliganSome of you know I'm a public transportation nerd & love riding/exploring on foot/public transit anywhere I go. It was nice to get a break from riding Grab (the Philippines' rideshare service in major cities) & driving, & actually getting to ride around in one of their jeeps! I've only visited 3 Philippine islands so far & have noticed a difference in their jeeps & public transit. The last island I visited last year was Cebu, & I noticed their jeeps were mostly the Japanese models, & tricycles were also bawal (forbidden). In addition to the jeeps in La Union (on the island of Luzon), you see tricycles everywhere & it's actually my favorite way to get around (when not driving — we also don't have Grab in La Union). And in Luzon, our jeeps are mostly Mercedes or BMW (what I like to call the n*zi models, LOL). However, in Mindanao, I noticed their jeepneys were a mix of n*zi models & also the Japanese models (I mostly saw Isuzu & Mitsubishi, & probably others). Here's a few jeeps in motion while getting to ride in one! They also didn't have tricycles, but they had Bajaj 3-wheelers which are typically ridden for shorter distances. Didn't get any photos of any, but you can look them up here, if you're curious. 
Butterflies These photos are all out of sequence, but I wanted to share this image last. After exploring Iligan with friends for the day, they brought me to a malongan, a shop that sells malongs. For a long time, I've been drawn to butterflies, & I immediately spotted a malong with a butterfly pattern. My friend & I both agreed we'd never seen a malong with butterflies on it. Of course I had to get it. After some shopping, we stepped out to end up at the Tubod River (I think this is the one).
Upon stepping out to the river, we noticed a black butterfly landed on my arm & flew away. When my dad passed away years ago, I remember a black butterfly staying on the ceiling above his casket for days during the week-long wake. Not sure exactly who was communicating with me this time, but could feel this was a messenger from the spirit world making sure we were protected on this trip. Part 2 of my Mindanao trip is forthcoming, followed by a special announcement on why I'm in the Philippines again for TWO months! If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Going a bit out of sequence from my recent trip to the Philippines, here are some photos from a short trip my mom & I took to Cebu together. Part exploration & holiday, part study & research for an upcoming artist residency, where I am studying the origins of the Santo Niño & its context in contemporary Philippines & the diaspora. Some photos are not related to the research at all, but included are digital compositions from additional explorations around Cebu City. Fair warning, some photos are not good at all... Haha, but are more intended just for documenting purposes. All photos are from my Nikon ZF using a 24-70mm lens. I was able to sort through the photos properly through my desktop this time & edit them through Adobe Lightroom. However, for previous photos, I used the Nikon SnapBridge app through my iPhone, which I highly recommend if you're on the go & just want to get some snaps off your Nikon really quickly. Click an image below to enlarge. View from a computer for the full experience. Comments are welcome! :) Journey to Clark International AirportThe only way to get to Cebu from San Juan, La Union was to fly, since it is another island quite far away. My mom & I decided to fly out of Clark International Airport in Pampanga instead of taking the bus 6-8 hours to Manila & flying out of there. Neither of us had ever been to Clark before. After some research & confirmation from the bus company, we learnt you take the Bataan Transit bus out of San Fernando (the neighboring town) to Dau bus terminal in Pampanga, then either catch a short shuttle bus or taxi to the airport from there. Altogether, the journey was about 4 hours (minimal traffic since we left San Juan at 2AM), & saved us a few hours compared to having to trek to Manila. Clark was a positive experience, which no one usually says about airports & flying, haha. There was no traffic outside, the airport architecture was spacious, & there were more food options compared to the airport in Manila. I look forward to flying into/out of Clark Airport on my next trip to the Philippines.
Loved the Mondrian-esque stained glass color scheme of this bus terminal & the vintage-looking buses.  I was enamored by Clark Airport's post-vaporwave liminal space waiting room. Have you ever seen an airport that looks like this? Sugbo SentroLocated near our hotel was Sugbo Sentro, an outdoor food court filled with local Cebuano cuisines. Throughout the food establishments, one can find small Santo Niño altars among the food displays, as well as dancing plastic bags — an innovative solution to keeping flies away from the food. If you are vegetarian/vegan, there are not a whole lot of options here for outside of juice, rice & salted duck eggs. Sorry! 😅 I recall the space being handicap accessible (correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm not sure about the toilets. As a general practice when traveling in the Philippines, be sure to always bring your own tissue, hankies & hand sanitiser, as many toilets are not equipped with tissue or hand soap. 🥴  A small local fruit stand situated just outside of the food court. Some of my fav fruits are lanzones (which I've only ever seen in the Philippines) & rambutan. I always make sure to have these fruits whenever I go home, because they're either not accessible in the US, or they're very expensive & bland.   Palm leaves woven into vessels used to steam rice. Woven palm leaves used to cook food can be found throughout the archipelago & other parts of Southeast Asia. 
  Small Santo Niño shrines & flying plastic bags found throughout the restaurants. Filipinos are truly the most resourceful. Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary & Art GalleryThe Jumalon Butterfly Santuary & Art Gallery is a lesser-known attraction I found in my travel guide. Many of you who know me well know that I really love butterflies. Aesthetically they're beautiful, but I also love what they represent metaphorically. Transition, transformation, change, movement, migration, travel & sometimes return (depending on the type). If you love nature, science & art, I highly recommend visiting this space. There is a small entrance fee, but if you are in a position to donate more, please do as the sanctuary is completely sustained by the family & is not supported by any government funding. You can also support by letting more people know about the sanctuary. From what the remaining family members told us, they were getting so many more visitors, school & university tours prior to the pandemic. Like many small businesses & DIY spaces, the pandemic took a toll on their foot traffic. So if you happen to be in Cebu City, please make sure to pay this unique space a visit. Here are some photos from my Nikon ZF. Fair warning, not all are nice. I documented some just for the sake of documenting, so please don't come at me in the comments with mean banter. Be nice to me. 🥹 
A few misc compositions of the garden spaces of the sanctuary. Not pictured are the fluttering butterflies that could be spotted throughout. It was a bit difficult for me to photograph them. 😅 But also, I kind of didn't want to? Sometimes it's nice to just be in the moment without holding up a camera to everything. I noticed when juxtaposing these 4 images together, they kind of have similar compositions. What do you think?  DIY display timeline on the life of Julian N. Jumalon.  Mosaic painting by Julian N. Jumalon, made with broken butterfly wings.
 Julian N. Jamalon was not only an avid butterfly enthusiast, but he was also an artist & some would even say a scientist. We were told he'd been collecting butterflies since he was a child. As an adult, he was the first artist to create mosaic paintings out of broken butterfly wings, which he'd spent time collecting over many years. Not pictured, we also got a tour of his private art studio & study, which contained many of his original sketches, small watercolor paintings & research. Something about looking into a dead man's private life was eerie, but also beautiful & special. Not formally trained as a biologist, he was also a scientist, being the first to study Native butterflies of the Philippines. He traveled throughout the Philippines, Southeast Asia & other parts of the world collecting & studying butterflies, moths & other insects. Side note: Turns out it's really difficult to photograph objects behind glass! Or, maybe I'm just not doing it properly? If any other photographers have tips, please let me know what you've got. I'm still learning a lot of new things since picking up digital photography.
A few outdoor butterfly sculpture displays.   Spiraling DIY display of cocoons held together with binder clips.
Here's some photos of the interior gallery displays. Small, intimate, & situated on the ground level of the family's home, this gallery was like stepping into a time capsule of someone's personal life. Filled with dozens of insects, this gallery also displayed plenty of misc bric-a-brac collected during Jumalon's travels over the decades. The best part of this gallery was its unpretentious & DIY nature. Everything had its own charm & personality, including the ceiling fan, old AC wall unit, cocoons inside of plastic food containers, & mismatched fabrics used to cover the displays. I hope if this collection is ever acquired by a museum, they display it exactly like this, because this is not only a collection of art & science, but it's a history of a multigenerational family's life, which is just as important & equally deserves to be preserved in the same caliber.
Last stop at the sanctuary was the art gallery (entrance pictured above), which housed all of Jumalon's award-winning original watercolor & mosaic paintings. Once inside, there is no photography allowed. I'm assuming due to fear of illegal reproductions, which is understandable. This means you'll have to visit in-person someday to see what the paintings look like! 😉 Carbon MarketNext, we visited a massive palengke (open-air public market), known as the Carbon Market. It is the oldest & biggest palengke in Cebu. It was so big, we did not get through the whole market. One, because it was so overwhelming & crowded. Two, because it was way too hot & the heat exhaustion was starting to kick in. 🥵 Dating back to the early 20th century, during the American colonial era of the Philippines, this palengke has everything from tropical fruits & veggies, street food, pasalubong (souvenirs), woven goods, flowers & more. My mom was taken aback by how much cheaper the fruit was compared to San Juan & brought back two giant bags of lanzones & rambutan. As you will see, I also came across a handful of small Santo Niño altars throughout the market. The parts along the roads can be handicap accessible. However, once you go inside, the walkways are so narrow & full of items, even a walking person can have difficulty getting through. Please practice caution & awareness when walking throughout the aisles.
 
    Misc ParadeMisc parade celebration we came across on our way to the basilica. I don't really know what it was for, haha. I am assuming it was a promotion for a local politician. 
Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de CebuThis was the main thing I wanted to go to Cebu for. I wanted to learn about the origins of the Santo Niño in the Philippines & go back to where it all started. It's quite a lot to explain & this post is already very long, but you can learn about the history on the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu official website. If you do plan to visit the basiilica, make sure to wear proper attire. It is a lot like the Vatican now: full of tourists & dress code rules. Make sure you wear a top with sleeves that does not expose your chest or back, wear close-toed shoes, & if you are wearing a dress, skirt or shorts, make sure they are well past your knees, including the backs of your knees when you bend over. They will not let you in otherwise! I thought my dress was long enough, but they saw the backs of my knees & did not let me enter. I ended up having to go to a shop nearby that sold long skirts. The funny thing was, they just started enforcing this new dress code maybe one or two days before we visited. There are loads of vendors outside the basilica selling prayer candles & other religious souvenirs. There could be a new market for the vendors to now sell long skirts & shirts. 😅 Lastly, please note that some parts of the basilica are not handicap accessible. 😔 
 
 
 
I think for me, speaking as a non-Catholic/Christian/religious person in-general, the coolest thing I got to see was the original image of the Santo Niño that first appeared in the Philippines as far back as the 16th century. Many make the pilgrimage to visit this Holy Child & sometimes queue up for several hours to quickly glance at it encased behind bulletproof glass. Me? I got lucky & only waited for 10 minutes, haha.
A bit difficult to photograph the interior of the cathedral, since visitors are not allowed to do photography past a certain point. I tried my best!
 
Magellan's Cross, found just outside of the basilica compound, symbolises the Spanish colonisation & Christianisation of the Philippines in 1521. 😮💨 The mural depicts the baptism of the former Cebu royalty to Catholicism.  Not actually at the Basilica, this was a small religious souvenir shop located just opposite. Here, I got to purchase my own mini Santo Niño made out of wood, as well as other religious goods. Mentioning again for clarity, I am not religious, & this is for research purposes only. El Fuerte de San Pedro & the National Museum of the Philippines — CebuEl Fuerte de San Pedro (Fort San Pedro) is the oldest fort in the Philippines. This makes sense, since the first Spanish settlement was in Cebu. Sources online state that you can view original artworks & Spanish artifacts at the fort. This is no longer true, as they have been acquired by the National Museum. The museum is located just next door & you can easily walk on over to learn more about Cebuano & Bisayan history, both precolonial & colonial. Fort San Pedro is not handicap accessible. If I recall, the National Museum does have lifts & accessible toilets available.      
Right: Small Santo Niño sculpture displayed at the National Museum. Unfortunately, I do not know who the artist is! If you know who it is, please let me know & I can properly credit them. Thank You!That concludes this very long post & the Return Call blog series! If you made it this far & actually read everything — thank you! But if you just skimmed through the photos, I appreciate that, too. I know I could have easily broken up this post into multiple smaller posts, but it was important to me to keep each part of the trip together as their own mini-series within a series.
Coming soon: Hopefully some film photos! I sent about 28 rolls to the lab & have soooooo many to scan. Each roll is 36 exposures, so please be patient as I sort through them all. I'm excited to share I've upgrade my 10 year old scanner & have a shiny new scanner to work with that is much higher quality & should hopefully shave off a significant amount of editing time. I'm stoked to share the results with you all! I welcome any questions or dialogue in the comments below. Would love to know your thoughts on this post. 🖤 It's been exactly 5 years since I've returned to the motherland. The last time I was in the Philippines was to bury my father back in 2019. I'd been wanting to return more frequently since then, but the pandemic suddenly came out of left field. Even on my way over, I can't say I was comfortable being trapped in multiple airports & planes with herds of unmasked & coughing people for what turned out to be over 24 hours of commuting. But, I knew if I didn't do this now, it may be a long time until I could return. After losing my full-time employment in early September, I answered the return call to come home once again... Here's the first installment of some pics pulled from my Nikon ZF. I no longer have a Lightroom subscription, so I imported these lower-res pics over to my mobile via the Nikon SnapBridge app & did some light edits through the photos app on my iPhone. More to come, & film photos will be available when I get back to the states, process & scan them all. Can't wait to tell you all about my new film scanner, too. Stay tuned! Enjoy! Feel free to leave a nice comment & let me know what you think. ;) View from a computer for the full experience. Click an image below to enlarge.
 Some public transportation watching in San Fernando (top right & bottom) & San Juan town proper (top left). I love the public transportation in the Philippines. There's nothing else like it! And I love all the names people give their jeepneys. This one, for example, was named Alaska Halibut. 😆 The following photos are of the church my father was baptised in, & where we also held his mass before we buried him. It turns out St. John the Baptist Church was built sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s. It is where most of my family on my father's side were baptised, married, &/or also had their mass before burial. This church is very special to my family. 🙏🏽 Please note — I, myself, do not identify as religious. Throughout my work, I document colonial legacies specifically relating to religions & their iconography, more specifically Christianity & its lasting influences through contemporary times. It's probably one of my fav themes to explore!
   
 Not a great pic at all because of the glare, but this creepy display was motion censored & abruptly lit up when my niece & I walked close to it! Scared the shit out of us & I just wanted to share a crappy photo for you to all see what we were looking at. We weren't exactly sure who the figure inside was supposed to be, because there was no signage indicating who it was. However, we believe based on the stigmata on the feet, that maybe this is supposed to be Jesus? 🤷🏻♀️
 🌾 Rice harvest season: Life in Dangdangla, San Juan, La Union, Philippines. Dangdangla is a small barangay in the municipality of San Juan. It has a population of roughly 1000 residents. For those of you who don't know, the simplest way to translate the word barangay (ba-ran-gy) to English would be village or community? The word originated from the balangay, which was a type of boat used by the Austronesians when they sailed & settled in the Philippines. The word was originally pronounced ba-la-ngay.    
My first time to see a carabao out in the wild & close up! The carabao (kalabaw/karabaw) is a type of water buffalo & is known as the national animal of the Philippines, symbolising hard work. Carabao were often found helping with rice cultivation. 💪🏽🐂
Lastly, I ended my river excursion in Dangdangla with a rare double rainbow sighting. 🌈 To me, one rainbow is already remarkable. But to experience a double rainbow in the land my ancestors once thrived in felt like a blessing, & hopefully a good omen.
In pre-colonial Philippine culture, there is a belief that the soul is transported to the afterlife through maritime travel by a boat that flows down a river, & is then returned to nature to guide their descendants. I'd like to think maybe this was a sign from my father, saying "Welcome home, kid. I'm here if you need me." 🤲🏽 Stay tuned for digital pics from my upcoming adventures to Baguio & Cebu! 📸 ***CONTENT WARNING*** Some adult imagery below. Scroll with caution! This summer, I was invited to be a mentor to Arts at Blue Roof's summer artist in residence, Clarisse Abelarde, an emerging oil painter from the Philippines. I had the privilege to witness Clarisse's creative process & explore her new body of work, which is now culminating as her solo exhibition A Fort Held Together by Spit & Prayers. Please join us at the opening reception, as we celebrate her creativity & hard work over the summer. No RSVP required to join the opening. Here's some behind-the-scenes photos of Clarisse at her summer studio at Arts at Blue Roof. Photos by me on my Nikon ZF with 24-70mm lens. 🙂 View from computer for the full experience.
I never really experimented with off-camera flash for personal work, especially not with colored gels. While I continue to practice my digital photography & portraiture skills, I want to keep pushing myself to try new gear & techniques I haven't used for personal work in the past. Thank you, Clarisse, for allowing me to experiment with my new Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii! And thanks to my homie Art Bueno for recommending this flash unit & for always encouraging me to push my photography boundaries even further. Fair warning, the first photo with the red gel was a complete accident, but we both agreed we really liked it. 🤣 Hopefully one day I can figure out how to replicate this look on purpose! (For someone who's done photography for nearly 20 years, I've got the photography skills of Britta Perry.)
Rare admin reveal – me on the bottom right. 😉 I'm usually the one behind the camera, not in front of it. It took us a good 5 mins to figure out how to find the self-timer on my camera, too. 💀 If you've never been, Arts at Blue Roof is a unique art space that looks like it inhabits a former church. For those of you who are close to me, you know that one of my dreams has been to buy an old church in the Philippines & convert it to an art gallery & studio. Walking through Blue Roof was big inspo. 🙌🏽 During my time living in England, I was inspired by all the former churches that were converted to secular housing, while still maintaining the integrity of the original architecture. Why not convert more of these structures to community spaces, like Blue Roof has done? Here's some pics of the cool lounge area at Blue Roof!
Pics of the exhibition installation to come! Stay tuned & make sure to follow me on Instagram @nica_aquino for updates.
Click "READ MORE" below if you're interested in hiring me for photo work! On Saturday, March 16, 2024, I had the opportunity to join Clockshop for their walking tour of Cypress Park — the neighborhood my partner & I have lived in for nearly a decade. Clockshop's neighborhood walking series was led by Maryam Hosseinzadeh & is part of their Take Me to Your River project. We walked along Cypress Avenue & visited local legacy businesses, street murals, & more. Having explored Cypress Park on foot for so many years, it was remarkable to meet the artists behind the murals I've seen in the neighborhood for the last decade, & also learn about murals I'd never seen before! It was also lovely to learn about the historic buildings and architecture that preceded our time here, such as the original Cypress Park Library, La Morenita (a former bakery), & the old firehouse. I didn't get pics of it all, because I also wanted to learn & take it all in myself, but here's a few snaps of the event through my eyes. Funny thing is, some people thought I was there working. One of the artists thought I was a reporter & some other folks thought I was working doing photography for the event. Sometimes Capricorns do stuff for fun, too, not just for business... 🤣 Click on any image below to enlarge. Best viewed from a computer for the full experience. 
Details of Vistas de Harmony (1997) mural by Leo Limon. Located behind Metro bus division 3, by the Cypress Park Rec Center. Speaking is Joe Ibarra, who shared his memories of assisting Leo Limon with the mural (alongside other artist assistants), as he also worked as a library clerk at the original Cypress Park Library at the time.  Program host Maryam Hosseinzadeh speaking by Leo Limon's Vistas de Harmony mural.  Peter Quezada shared about the barrier put up in the 1990s due to gangs using it as a cut through by the Cypress Park Rec Center. Growing up in Pico-Union for many years, I was surrounded by MS13 gang activity. I'm no stranger to streets with barriers, since the street I grew up on myself had one & so did 3 other nearby streets going along Pico.
Rodolfo Kardona and his daughter Ximena Kardona shared how he works with local businesses, selects colors and themes for each business, and his regular inclusion of the Virgen de Guadalupe. He's painted multiple murals at Cypress Park establishments such as Lupita's Mexican Restaurant & Divine Savior church, & also St. Ann's just across the river in Frogtown. Here we were opposite Lupita's Restaurant by the Metro bus division. Unfortunately, I didn't cross the street to get a pic of his Virgen mural, but I encourage you to check it out in-person & get a meal at Lupita's Restaurant any time on Idell & Avenue 28 (90065)! 
These detailed pencil drawings were drawn by Manny (pictured in the red shirt), who would like to start creating murals in the community. He shared his artwork with us after finding us along the tour route. 
Northeast Los Angeles and Neighborhood Pride (2012) murals by Peter Quezada. Peter talked about his process of painting in alleys close to neighbors and kids, his use of Olde English, cartoon characters and experimenting with other lettering. I appreciate that he also shared why he chose to paint "Northeast Los Angeles" instead of "Cypress Park". "Cypress Park" is the name of our local gang, & he mentioned the mural would have been scratched out instantly. Painting "Northeast Los Angeles" instead was inclusive of all the neighborhoods that make up NELA. These murals were new to me — I'd never seen them before this tour! Sadly, I can't remember where exactly they were at, just that they were close to the Divine Savior church. If you happen to know their location, feel free to leave a comment & let us know.
Details of murals by Rodolfo Kardona at Lupita's Market. Located on Cypress & Merced. Rodolfo spoke about the Aztec warrior he painted on Lupita's Market in 2018, his own repair process, use of high quality house paint that doesn't fade, & the wood carved signs inside & 3D artwork, including this image of Juan Diego with the Virgen de Guadalupe on his cloak. I love Lupita's Market! For years I always wondered if Lupita's the market & Lupita's the restaurant were related or if they beefed it over the name. 😂  Flintstones (1997) by Peter Quezada. This mural was painted by Peter with kids from the neighborhood, whose names are included on the scroll. It is a neighborhood artwork. I got to connect with Peter while we were visiting this mural, & he told me Pebbles & Bamm-bamm were references to his kids, & Fred Flintstone is holding the Land Before Time book because of the movie series that was out at the time. I have probably walked by this Flintstones mural at least 100x & have always wondered about it. It was so cool to meet the person who painted it! 
Murals & signage painted by Rodolfo Kardona at El Quetzal Bird Shop. For many years, we ate at the original Tierra Caliente restaurant formerly located across the alley adjacent to the bird shop. I never knew multiple neighborhood murals were painted by one man. I'm personally scared of birds, but I still think this is a fun amenity to have in our neighborhood. 😅  Andres of Arvia LA (left) & the owners of Cypress Liquor (right). This family is local to the neighborhood & has been serving the community for years. Whether you're looking for beer, liquor, wine, a lighter or a snack, stop by & support Cypress Liquor, the last oldschool business standing on the 1200 block of Cypress & Alice.
LAST STOP: Arvia LA with Andres, Clare & Richard (the cat). Andres shared how his detailed multimedia mosaics not only changed the alley visually, but also recorded the passing of time for him. The further he created down the alley marked a certain time period or memory. Whenever I have friends visiting, I love taking them to check out what's new or ongoing at the Arvia LA alley. It's always fun to look for easter eggs & see what hidden features are around. You can access the Arvia LA murals through the alley entrance on either Cypress or Isabel, between Arvia & Granada. Keep your eyes peeled for Andres' mosaics around the neighborhood, too! If you made it this far, THANKS!
Keep in touch. Follow me on Instagram @nica_aquino or subscribe to my newsletter for occasional updates on my projects, programs & events. Click "READ MORE" below if you're interested in hiring me for photo work! |
NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
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