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Over a year later, I am FINALLY concluding work from my ARROZidency artist-in-residence at OM France Viana Studio at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.
As a last reminder, if you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from the beginning! View from a computer for the full experience. A full round-up of my residency work, starting from my research in Cebu in 2024 up until this post, is available under the tag:
To view my main residency project only, which consists of my Cebu research & main photo documentary essay, that work is tagged under:
I am really excited to finally finish this project, because it's taken me over a year to do so! After reviewing all of the work, I hadn't realised how busy I actually was. It was a struggle to finish sooner due to more unexpected, drawn-out health issues last year after I came home from the Philippines. But now that I've finally had time to sit with the work, it felt like the right time to revisit & push myself to finish.
I haven't got much else to say other thank how thankful I am for this experience — a truly educational, healing, spiritual & transcendental experience in so many ways. And I am so, so thankful for all the people who supported me along the way, whether it was making a direct investment into the work itself, helping me secure housing, or even just meeting up to connect, spend time together, talk art & life. Altogether, it made for a deeply insightful experience. These last few photos aren't really related to the work at all — yes & no. They were just a few misc photos I found on my camera roll from misc excursions. I recommend clicking on them to enlarge! At the end of every day, even though I could have stayed late & gone on all night like I used to at my studio during my college days, I always made a point to leave the studio before dark. Every day, I left the studio in the Dogpatch district around sunset for a bike ride along the bay into Union Square. While it wasn't part of the art-making, per se, it was a way for me to clear my mind, unwind from the day & mentally prepare for the next day. The top-left photo was just from one of those days when I happened to stop & take a photo. The right & bottom left photos are from misc walks from Union Square to my sublet in Nob Hill. Every day, I tried to take a different route to see if I saw something cool along the way. Revisiting the neon signage of the "Love These Flowers" was like visually giving flowers to myself for finally finishing this project. And the bottom right photo was something that just quickly caught my eye on a walk home one day. Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love, a skate deck & misc tagging. Thinking of the last song on the album as I finish this series. Thanks for reading this far. :) 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. 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. Welcome to the last part of this photo blog series, Taiwan Travel: Art, Ritual & the Everyday. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling below & starting at part 1! And as promised, here is a map roundup of all the places I visited in Taiwan during this trip. I also included some places I visited during my last trip in 2018, but didn't get to visit them again this time. Make sure to check my notes for each location! :) Nanfang’ao Jin’an TempleBefore the end of my trip, my friends asked me if there was anything else I wanted to do before I left. I asked them if they knew of any temples for the goddess Mazu. They asked how I knew about her, & I told them a good friend of mine told me she always wanted to visit a temple for Mazu & asked if I could go see one during my trip. So we took a short road trip to the coastal town of Su’ao Township in Yilan County, Taiwan to visit the Nanfang’ao Jin’an Temple. By chance, I happened to be there during an annual event that’s scheduled according to the Lunar calendar, making the timing of my visit feel incredibly lucky. From what one of my friends explained to me, this event is essentially folks bringing deities from their local temples to come pay their respects to the goddess Mazu, with some of the statues portrayed even being split incarnations from a Mazu incarnate. Usually, followers will take the split incarnation to a temple that offers the main Mazu shrine to pay their respects. Followers believe that the divine spirits live in these statues, but since the statues cannot move themselves physically, their followers will travel with them to visit Mazu. I couldn't find the exact name of this event. Most of the events I read about online with a similar description say they usually take place in March/April, but this event I experience occurred in November. However, if you are interested in learning more, you can read about the various pilgrimages to Mazu that take place in Taiwan. Who is Mazu & why is is she so special to the Taiwanese people? Mazu was a historical figure who was devoted to her coastal community & died trying to help save fishermen from a shipwreck. After her passing, she was deified. In Taiwan and across the diaspora, people venerate her as a sea goddess and ask for her protection and guidance, especially for those who live or work by the ocean. With Su’ao Township home to the third-largest fishing community in Taiwan, it’s only natural that there are places of worship dedicated to Mazu. The Mazu shrines inside the temple were remarkable and really something to experience in person. There were three floors of shrines in total: one floor featuring a massive jade statue of Mazu, and the top floor showcasing a breathtaking golden Mazu. Here are some photos from the ceremony below. Out of respect, I did not photograph the temple interior since there were people praying, but there are plenty of photos online at the links I provided above! 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.  
   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. I'd just arrived in Taiwan at this point. It's always been my dream to meet some capybaras. My friend helped make that dream come true & took me to go meet some, hehe. They were very cute & sweet, & their fur is very coarse. I even got to meet some babybaras. 🥲 If you ever find yourself in Yilan County, Taiwan, make sure to visit Bambi Land if you ever wanna meet some! 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.
This will be my last photo essay of the year, broken up into three parts. Taiwan Travel: Art, Ritual & the Everyday is a series of photographs from my trip to Taiwan at the end of 2024. It’s taken me a while to get through these photos, as I’ve prioritised other projects, rest, & my well-being. However, after recently reviewing the photos for the first time since then, I’m so glad I got to them when I did. I’m in love with how they came out, & they brought back some wonderful memories of bonding & spending time with friends in Taiwan, whom I hadn’t seen since my last visit back in 2018. This first part won’t be as image-heavy. If you’ve been keeping up with this space, you might already know that prior to going to Taiwan, I was traveling in the Philippines & Japan. After a month of doing photography in the Philippines, & overall dealing with some heavy emotions after having not visited the motherland since burying my dad in 2019, I was burnt out on photography. I didn’t take as many photos as I could have in Japan, & my will to shoot became even weaker once I arrived in Taiwan. Regardless, it was lovely to reconnect with good friends I hadn’t seen in years. I’m eternally grateful to my friends, Animus & Angela, for spending time with me, & for their hospitality, generosity, & deep compassion. Every day was spent immersing ourselves in food, art, local culture, nature, or even the metaphysical. This time it wasn’t so much about experiencing tourism as it was about reconnecting & simply being together. Some of the best nights we spent were just drinking home-roasted coffee or local tea, reading tarot cards, playing Uno or Switch, & watching Taiwanese films. I also had some of the best vegan food of my life on this trip & even got to experience my first typhoon!😅 Overall, losing my job in September 2024 was one of the best things to ever happen to me. Although I’ve been navigating precarity in these last few months as the economy & job market have absolutely tanked, 2025 has been one of the best years of my life, & it’s due to not having to work, as sad as that may sound. I wish we could all experience this at some point in our lives. This year is the most productive I’ve ever been, & I’m so thankful for the opportunity to actually focus on my art practice & self-study. While I’ve been struggling to find stability, & sometimes struggling with my choices (navigating regret, wondering if I made the right decisions or not), I decided to be brave, take a risk, & focus on my self-growth above anything else. I’m also thankful to have had my last job, because the salary paid well enough that I was able to save, still live off that money, & be okay right now. Even though things have been uncertain, I have many things to be grateful for, & I'm looking forward to what is meant for me next.  Misc unedited photos from my phone: Click on an image below to enlarge & for a lil' caption description about each one! I'll include a Google Map roundup with notes on each location in my last post in this series, but here are some of the places featured below:
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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. If you're reading this: Congratulations! You made it to Friday & survived another week of this capitalist hellscape & arbitrary white supremacy culture... We did it. 🥲 I'm up late trying to finish this photo blog. Shout out to all my creatives who stay up late working on their art, while having a day job in the morning that they need to report to in order to survive & support their creative practice... It's not easy to balance both. I've struggled with it a lot in the past & found that my creative practice always has to take a back seat to wage labor & surviving capitalism. It's hard not to be depressed knowing that is just reality & there's nothing you can really do about it, but oh well, I guess. Anyways, here's some photos from Heritage Square Museum's Dia de los Muertos event last weekend. It was our first time visiting Heritage Square Museum (despite living in Northeast LA for over 10 years!) & it was really interesting. We would love to go back another time when there isn't a massive event going on & actually check out the historic homes and other sites on the property. Growing up in Los Angeles, Dia de los Muertos has always been one of my favorite celebrations. In the Philippines we know it as Undas. I've always had a fascination with death. I'm not uncomfortable talking about it — it's just part of life & sadly it's just been around me a lot. In fact, I had a few near-death encounters in my early 20s myself... Everywhere I've lived as an adult, I've always had an altar in my house to honor the ancestors & invite the spirits for protection & good energy. This is not a practice I grew up with, as I was not raised religious or spiritual in any way, but something I learnt to practice on my own. The good part about not having religion or spirituality forced on me was, I had the freedom to explore different beliefs & study them on my own. Day of the Dead is something I look forward to every year. And if you know me, you know I've produced a few programs centering the occasion myself.
These photos below were created with my Nikon ZF & Pocket Dispo lens. For clarity, I was not paid for these photos. I went to this event & did photography for fun. If you want to hire me for event photography, please get in touch! View from a computer for the full experience. Click a photo to enlarge.
 Some of you know I love vintage public transportation. 🤓 
Live painting by @samanthafriedart (right). 
 
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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
I borrowed another bike from one of Tokyo's ride share programs & rode over to Gōtokuji Temple (AKA Lucky Cat Temple) in Setagaya City. My general rule when traveling somewhere was, if it was faster to just ride a bike instead of taking the train, or if the bike ride was 30 mins or less, I would cycle over there instead.
I remember this was not a temple I was recommended or found through a travel guide. I was already planning to meet up with a friend in Shimokitazawa (also in Setagaya City), & this place randomly popped up on my map. I decided to cycle over before meeting up with my friend for lunch. I'd already been to Shimokitazawa the day before & there were some really sweet record shops, vintage shops & restaurants that were recommended to me that I didn't get to all check out because the business hours were funky! Decided to go back the following day to check these places out & to meet up with my friend as well. Here's a Google Map guide with some places I recommend! Make sure to check out the notes I left in the locations. Check out these photos I took at Gōtokuji Temple! Now that I am looking at these photos a year later, I am not sure why I decided to bring only one lens & why I chose one that wasn't so wide either, but oh well. I wasn't thinking clearly at the time. This is all I got! LOL This is the 2nd installment of 4 parts. Keep following for the next 2 parts including: Day trip to Kamakura, then Minato City. All blogs in this series can be found in the Mono No Aware tag. All photos were made using my Nikon ZF. Enjoy! BEST VIEWED FROM A COMPUTER FOR THE FULL EXPERIENCE. CLICK ANY IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE! GŌTOKUJI TEMPLE
I never do B&W anymore, but some of these cemetery pics just had to be!
Transition into my vibrant world of color. :)
My fav composition in this set!
THE END
After the temple, I ended up meeting with my friend for lunch in Shimokitazawa. The bike hub I parked at had this cute window bay right across from it! I ended up revisiting it again later with my friend, because I'd lost one of my bike lights. We went back & retraced my steps, ended up not finding it en route, but did actually find it back at the same bike hub again!
The exact window bay location & bike hub in question.
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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. I've finally had a moment to sort through the digital photography I did in Japan last year. I'm actually impressed it wasn't that many photos, haha! Before heading to Japan last year, I'd just spent a month in the Philippines. During my time there, I started a new photo series, Return Call (WIP). By the time I got to Japan, I was so burnt on photography. I didn't take as many photos as I did the prior month in the Philippines. I was processing a lot at the time. Being in Tokyo was a lot to process as well. From nature to neon, I felt overwhelmed by it all. Mono No Aware (moh-noh noh uh-WAR-ee) shares some of the digital photography I created in Japan. Mono No Aware is a Japanese concept referring to the fleeting nature of life, an awareness for the temporary & finding beauty in impermanence. When I read about this concept, I felt this applied a lot to the photo work I create — documenting urban life & cityscapes that are continually changing. This is the 1st installment of 4, starting with Shibuya, as well as a quick excursion to Shinjuku the day after I landed. Keep following for the next 3 parts including: Setagaya City, Kamakura & Minato City. All blogs in this series can be found in the Mono No Aware tag. All photos were made using my Nikon ZF. Enjoy! BEST VIEWED FROM A COMPUTER FOR THE FULL EXPERIENCE. CLICK ANY IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE! SHIBUYA   
My first time doing street photography at night! Shibuya was not my favorite place & I definitely stayed in the most chaotic, but also most centrally located, part of Shibuya — near Shibuya Station. Shibuya was really easy to get to from Narita Airport, especially since I landed late at night. It was a straight shot on the Narita Express train. I remember getting off the train & immediately feeling sensory overload. There were so many lights, it was noisy, & there were huge crowds everywhere. It was also Halloween season, & they banned public drinking on the streets, haha. October was an amazing time of the year to go, because the weather was PERFECTION, & while the crowds did still exist, it was definitely more of an off-season. While Shibuya was not my favorite place, I loved the apartment I rented, there were plenty of bike share hubs, easy to get to/from the airport, plenty of affordable food options, & it's heaven for street photographers & anyone who loves people watching! Shibuya is great if you love shopping & socialising. Greater Shibuya was lovely & less chaotic, with way less crowded streets for cycling, AWESOME record shops, & incredible food & treats, especially in Ebisu!   kids & baby cut  (Yes, I'm aware Snoopy is wearing a racist costume.) RECOMMENDATIONS:
Honozono Shrine in ShinjukuI rode a bike, went to this shrine & record shopping the day after I arrived in Shibuya. There was a flea market here but none of the items were interesting to me. 😅 It was my first day riding out in Tokyo & I felt like I was fighting for my damn life. 🤣 (me in my head: I have this in Animal Crossing ⛩️) 
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If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Tomorrow, 3 May, is the last day of my Balay da Judge artist residency with the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library in San Fernando, La Union. 🥲 This will be my last update on this project for a while. I am returning to the US next week, where I will prioritise processing the 35mm film I used to create the main part of this project. The digital photos published in this blog series are meant to serve as previews of the work-in-progress, not final works, but I hope you all enjoyed what you saw. I am hoping to get all film scanned & edited before the end of this year. It will be a priority! These were a few photos I was able to create during the photo walk portion of my photo workshop, using the prompts from our photo scavenger hunt list. These were the very last photos I made with my Nikon ZF (and Pocket Dispo lens) on this trip. View from a computer for the full experience. Click any image to enlarge.   
 Below is an event recap photo gallery provided by the library as well.                      I am also very excited to soon share the workshop participants' photos they created during our photo walk! The submissions are rolling in & already they're all SO incredible! As an art educator, the proudest moment you can experience is seeing your students put your lessons to practice & witness them create. So please stay tuned for updates on that as well! The library & I will be collaborating to publish an online exhibition of the complete collection of photography, & hopefully a printed zine (still TBD).
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my posts. All updates on my residency will be tagged under Balay da Judge. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Hey all, this is the last week of my Balay da Judge artist residency, as it ends on May 3... This will be one of my last few updates on the work-in-progress I've created for this project, so I hope you enjoy.
While this is more of another side quest & not really related to the residency project, my mom & I paid a visit to Ma-Cho Temple in San Fernando. Ma-Cho Temple is located in the barangay of Ilocanos Norte, where my mom & dad had their first house together. My mom said the temple has been there for many years & it's a place she'd always wanted to go, but never did. She said back in the day supposedly it was never open to the public. Before I leave San Fernando, I wanted to visit this place together with her since she said she'd always wanted to see what it was like. After visiting, my mom also got to show me a bit of Ilocanos Norte. All photos below are from my Nikon ZF using a Pocket Dispo lens. View from a computer for the full experience. Click any image to enlarge. 
Loved that all the parked cars happened to be red.
Ma-Cho temple was built in San Fernando, La Union in 1978 by Filipino-Chinese devotees. It is the first Taoist temple in the Philippines. Sat on top of a hill & overlooking the China Sea, this temple is located within the middle of the hustle & bustle of San Fernando city life. The temple is filled with gardens, pagodas, sculptures & an interior temple with the most intricate carved ceiling art I've ever seen. While I'm not a follower myself, my interest in culture extends to religion & spirituality, & I love visiting places like these. Last autumn, I recently came back from visiting an epic Taoist temple for the sea goddess Mazu in Taiwan. Naturally, stopping by this type of location would interest me. (I'll eventually share photos from that trip, but it's not a priority at the moment.)
After spending some time at the temple, we went around Ilocanos Norte to find the first house her & my dad lived in together as a couple. 
Here, you can see the entrance to the small street leading up to my parents' old house. Since it's not an actual street, there is no street name, but it is off of Ortega Street.
We walked down the small corridor & came across someone staying near the house. The lady told my mom that the original owner (who owned the house when my mom & dad were renting from them) sold the house some time ago & the former owner's nephew is currently the caretaker for the house. My mom explained that she used to live there many years ago with my late dad. She told me she had not been back to that house since the 1970s, & that back in the day it was still dirt roads around there with not as many other houses around.
After we visited her & my dad's first house off of Ortega Street, we went to visit one more house of theirs', which is actually also located just within Tanqui, behind the church at the town plaza in San Fernando.
Located behind this house on Zamora Street, just up the alley on the right (which also has no name) is the last house my mom lived in before immigrating to the United States. She said it is also the house she was living in when she brought my brother home from the hospital. He was born in 1975 & she immigrated to the States in 1980. She lived in this house for about 5 years.
During the photo walk portion of my photography workshop this past weekend, we walked up this street to get to the capital grounds on top of the hill, where students would practice their photography skills & create photos using the prompts in their scavenger hunt list. I made sure to make a little pit stop by this house (just on the road, we didn't go through the alley), where I shared a bit of my family history & why this project is so personal to me.
I also forgot to update you all on which house my mom & dad formerly lived in on Zandueta Street, the street that crosses the library. Here is a photo again (which I already featured in part 2), as well as its placement on the map. You can see that Puón Books/Alfredo F. Tadiar Library is just at the end of the street. 
I hate all the political tarps. LOL
On a final [side] note — I'd also like to point out that some of you may have noticed I added something new to this post, which are the interactive maps. Since a lot of my work really is a visual diary of place, I wanted to further help viewers visualise these locations by sharing maps of where they're actually at & what is surrounding them. This inclusion was inspired by the comic series Windmills: Bearings by Filipino komik artist, Josel Nicolas. I recently got to purchase this graphic novel at Puón & read it during breaks from my residency work. An autobiographical graphic novel, I was inspired by Josel's juxtapositions of his unique illustration style with photography & maps, to further give readers an understanding of place. Not only was this an art style I have not yet encountered in comics (although I can't say it's like I've read millions of them), his writing style was poetic, & his narratives on personal traumas & mortality were deeply heavy, yet oddly relatable. I also really appreciated his humor & very generational-specific references ranging from WWF (F, not E, because us millenials grew up during the WWF era still!), to music references like Oasis (my fav!) & Slade, to random illustrations of Gael Garcia Bernal for no real reason (maybe other than the fact that we grew up watching so many of his films in the early 2000s). Anyways, please consider this my modest book review & get your hands on this inspirational graphic novel if you don't already own it! But bear in mind (hehe), it does contain some very heavy topics.
I have one more post before I time out of my residency tomorrow, 3 May! Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my posts. All updates on my residency will be tagged under Balay da Judge.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Earlier this week I went for a short sunset walk in the barangay of Lingsat in San Fernando, La Union. Like I'd previously mentioned, since it's been so hot, I've been trying to plan my photo outings around other errands I have to run, so that I can do photography closer to sunset, when it's less hot & the lighting is immaculate.
It's not technically an errand, more of a luxury, but there's a nail salon I started going to in Lingsat to get my nails done. I've been working on this project so much, I also need breaks & moments to treat myself! We all do. So I headed over to get my nails done first, then walked to a specific street to do some photography. Part of my mom's family history took place in Lingsat, specifically Hufano St. This is the street my older brother grew up on with our cousins early in his childhood, when our mother first immigrated to the US. He would then immigrate 5 years after her. My tita Rebing & manong Ronald both passed away nearly 2 years ago, one after the other... I didn't grow up here, but I also spent a lot of time here, both in childhood & as an adult. I decided to revisit so I could document what's left of this place to me. All photos below are from my Nikon ZF using a Pocket Dispo lens. View from a computer for the full experience. Click any image to enlarge. 
Walking down Hufano St felt warm & familiar, until I arrived at my tita's house & it was nearly unrecognisable. I only recognised the property because I remembered it was a corner lot & I remembered what the gate looked like. I was sad to see the small dwellings behind the main house were gone — the lot is now empty. And I know it doesn't make sense to keep since she passed away, but I was also so disappointed to see her sari-sari store gone. I spent so many slow morning's at this store, having breakfast, & hanging out with my nieces & nephews.
More blog posts on the work I've been producing during my residency will be published in the coming weeks! Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my posts. All updates on my residency will be tagged under Balay da Judge.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Here's some photos from my explorations around San Fernando on foot. These photos took place in the barangays of Catbangen & Tanqui. Not only are these barangays where the Balay da Judge artist residency & Alfredo F. Tadiar library are, they are also former barangays my parents used to live in & spend time in together. Since it's been so hot, I've been trying to plan my outings & errands later in the day, so I can go for a walk & explore after. Here's some interesting compositions & textures I saw during my walks, both early morning & late afternoon. I found that already by 9AM here, the lighting can be quite harsh. For temperature & lighting's sake, 4-6PM has been the sweet spot. All photos below are from my Nikon ZF using a Pocket Dispo lens. View from a computer for the full experience. Click any image to enlarge. Around the Plaza & Tanqui
 My parents once lived on Zandueta St. This street crosses the library.  Harsh lighting, but interesting shadows!
My mom said her & my dad once lived in a green house on Zandueta St, near the library. But we only saw one all-green house that looked way too massive for just a couple?! We saw some houses with green breeze block exteriors, but only one house that was actually all-green. Will confirm what exact house in the coming days, but either way, I love breeze blocks & I hate the mint green color, but I'm reminded of Tropikaye's study on #TKColorCooling. Check out the community index on their Instagram or Facebook pages. Despite my dislike for the color itself, this Philippine-specific visual phenomena still fascinates me. La Union Provincial CapitalFun fact: Did you know San Fernando is the capital city of La Union? 
I haven't been up to the capital grounds since 2018, when my older cousin first took me up here. Every time I come back home & he & his kids are not here, it's not the same. But I'll always be reminded of him fondly whenever I visit the kapitolyo or explore around San Fernando. Upon arrival, my studio assistant & I were pleasantly surprised to see that there was a lovely installation of artificial tulips for the spring season! I bet this looks stunning in the evening time. This is a location we will be visiting for my upcoming photo walk workshop, & we will be heading over around the golden hour. Hopefully it will be lit up so we can experience some magic together!
 They also still had Christmas decorations up, but it was still cute. 😅 Later Day ExplorationsNot sure the exact cause, but last week I experienced one of the worst migraines I've ever had. I was laying in my darkened room with the blinds shut. Any light & sound was making my head pound, & it hurt to look at anything. I tried taking an hour nap & woke up feeling worse! Took a cold shower that didn't help either. I took some meds & knocked out for another 5 hours, & that ended up doing the trick. It could have been caused by a combo of lack of sleep (which is not uncommon for me, sadly), heat exhaustion & maybe even dehydration. After a busy week & that migraine spell, Friday came along & I felt entitled to treating myself to a spa day, hehe. I took a tricycle to the spa, then took one back & got off at the town plaza so I could head back to the residence in Catbangen on foot. During my walk around Catbangen, I decided to take some side streets to find a local mini mart. It was closed, but I randomly happened to come across my mom's former high school. I often enjoy taking side streets because they're quieter & sometimes you just find things you wouldn't expect to see, whether they're locations or just cool compositions.
 
Saw this sick tricycle sidecar with flames painted on it. Along with the epic sunset lighting, it's giving Philippine Flavortown aesthetic. 🔥
 I love the juxtaposition of nature with rusty textures & colors. When you think of it, rust is just a chemical reaction that happens naturally when steel or iron corrode from the meeting of oxygen & water.   More blog posts on the work I've been producing during my residency will be published in the coming weeks! Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my posts. All updates on my residency will be tagged under Balay da Judge.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Semana Santa (Holy Week) in the Philippines is a religious season I've always wanted to experience. It is every goth girl's dream, hahaha (just kidding). All jokes aside, it's considered a big deal in the Philippines due to the country's large Catholic demographic. Not only is it very significant here, Semana Santa in the Philippines is particularly known for the senakulo, a gory reenactment of the passion play & death of Jesus. Senakulo comes from the Spanish word cenáculo, which is Spanish for the Cenacle — the Upper Room in Jerusalem where Jesus held the Last Supper. I'm not sure if our province reenacts such a gruesome senakulo performance, but I am both looking forward to finding out & also kind of scared. 😅 I've only ever seen fake gore on TV, not real gore in real life. Kicking off Semana Santa, I went to the local church at the town plaza in San Fernando, less than a 15 minute walk from my studio at the Balay da Judge, to attend an Ilokano mass for Palm Sunday. I knew the streets would be filled with palaspas, or woven palms. Signifying the start of Semana Santa, Filipinos carry their palaspas in hand to observe Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, where he was greeted with folks waving palms at him. While palaspas has its religious connotations, let's also acknowledge the art of palm weaving as a pre-colonial Indigenous practice. Aside from religious purposes, palm weaving is also used to make vessels to cook rice, baskets, fiesta goods & more. This moment feels full circle for me, since before I came back to the Philippines, I produced a palm weaving workshop for Mata Art Gallery in partnership with Artronika, led by teaching artist Diyan Bukobomba. Check out a recap here! All photos below were created with my Nikon ZF using a Pocket Dispo lens. View from a computer for the full experience. Click any image to enlarge. 
More blog posts on the work I've been producing during my residency will be coming up this week! Make sure to keep checking this space, or follow me on Instagram for updates. All updates on my residency will be tagged under Balay da Judge.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
I'm so excited to finally share that I am Alfredo F. Tadiar Library's second Balay da Judge artist-in-residence! While I've spent my first month in the Philippines exploring new places & reconnecting with friends & family, I'm spending my second month on this trip living & working at the Balay da Judge as part of my residency with the library. This residency is notably special to me, because it takes place in La Union, my family's home-province, where we have lived & thrived for generations.
For this residency, I am continuing my ongoing photo documentary project, Somnia Memorias (2018-present), which now consists of 3 different parts (part 3 is still currently in-progres), with the 4th part underway as part of my residency. The 4th part of the series focuses on San Fernando, the capital city of La Union. While my family is originally from San Juan, the neighboring municipality, much of my family has spent time in San Fernando, including my parents. San Fernando is particularly significant to me, because it is the place my parents first lived together as a couple & fell in love. Coincidentally, one of the houses my parents lived in together is on the street that crosses the library. For this project, my goal is to visit & document the barangays my parents used to live & spend time in together in San Fernando. Some of these barangays include Tanqui (where the library & bookshop is located), Catbangen (where the balay is), Ilocanos Norte & Lingsat. This project also attempts to trace back & log part of my family's history. One thing I wish I did more of before my father passed away was ask him more about himself, his family, who they were, where they're from, etc. It took me years to process this & name what it actually was: regret. When my dad passed, another father-less friend reminded me that all I have left is my mother, & to make the effort to talk & ask questions before it's too late. The start of this project has been interviewing my mother, asking about each immediate family member she knew of. Parents, siblings, half-siblings, etc. She only knew one grandparent, but barely knew him. I'm particularly drawn to finding out who he was. Aside from asking her about her immediate family, she's really the last connection I have left to my dad, or at least the last person who knew him the best. Of course I have my siblings, but none of us knew our dad the same way my mom did. By visiting the local places they once spent time in together, I'm hoping to also preserve a piece of contemporary La Union, with a special concentration on San Fernando. In addition to the photo documentary work, I'm also hosting a 2-day photo workshop, where I'll be teaching the basics of photography on day 1, & leading a photo scavenger hunt around the city on day 2! We will announce dates & times soon. Keep an eye out in this space for some digital previews of the work I'll be creating, before I officially process the film in a few months! Thank you to all of you who helped me get here, & thank you to the Artist Resistance Through Solidarity (ARTS) Foundation for partially funding my residency project as well! 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. Happy Lunar New Year from so-called San Francisco, CA! I've been in SF for a little over two weeks now, participating in an artist-in-residence program I was invited to nearly a year ago. This was something I was looking forward to all of last year & I've been having an amazing time so far. In just these past two weeks, I've got to connect with so many incredibly talented artists & arts professionals, experience so much art & culture, eat phenomenal food, & go on some scenic bike rides through parks & along the Bay. It's been an absolute dream. I hesitated to share about this sooner since many of you know I mostly work in silence & don't post a lot online. Especially within these last 1-1.5 years with the genocide & ongoing occupation of Palestine, then with the massive wildfires back in my hometown of Los Angeles erupting across the city right as I left for my residency, I've struggled with sharing because it hasn't felt good to me. However, in the next couple weeks as I start to wrap up my month-long residency, I'll be sharing more about what I've been making here in SF, as well as some more exciting news for my artistic "career". 2025 is year of the wood snake. The snake symbolises good luck & rebirth. Many of us in LA have had a rough start to 2025, & so many in Palestine have lost so much over nearly a century. I can't even begin to imagine what some are going through. But, while fire may be associated with destruction, it also comes with rebirth & regrowth. As we spend at least the next decade (or more) rebuilding, I hope 2025 is the year we all begin to rethink our relationship to the earth & each other, & the changes we need to make to ensure we see the land & our communities thrive for many more years. Feel free to let me know in the comments what your hopes are for year of the wood snake. 🪵🐍 Anyways! Here's some pics from this last Sunday at the SF Chinatown Flower Market Fair, as well as a visit to Edge on the Square to see their current exhibition (please note they're not normally open on Sundays). All photos are from my Nikon ZF with 40mm lens. Please view from a computer for the full experience & you can click on any image below to enlarge. 
  
 
WALKING STORIES AT EDGE ON THE SQUAREEdge on the Square is a space I wanted to check out the previous Sunday as my little cousin & I walked around Chinatown after having lunch. As the window display caught my eye, I was bummed they were closed! Thanks to their newsletter, I found out about the Chinatown flower fair & I was very happy to see they were also open. Their current exhibition, Walking Stories, is not one to miss. It is an interactive exhibition that shares the narratives of several Asian/-American artists. Check it out while it's still up & make sure to grab yourself some free zines & print media made by the artists.
The exterior window display (pictured on the left) particularly caught my eye, since it seemed very Killjoy-esque. Not her work, but a great piece nonetheless. However, I have to say the installation on reparations (pictured on the right) was my fav of all the works. Definitely grab yourself a mini-zine from the artist as well. MISC UPDATES:
Lastly, I'd like to share, like many people, I am further reducing my activity on social media. Social media is not something I've enjoyed for many years now. Just like I got off of Facebook & Tumblr, I might exit Instagram as well, but not sure yet. I will continue updating this blog & my new calendar page. I also recently started rolling out more of my video "content" on my YouTube channel — please subscribe! It's mostly just for fun, hehe. In the mean time, the best thing for you to do is sign up for my newsletter at the form below, to receive my updates in your inbox. Thanks for reading. I welcome any questions or dialogue in the comments. 🖤 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!
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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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