HALE-HALE HOY! (COMMISSIONED)

HALE-HALE HOY!, 2025
Acrylics and Mixed-Media on Canvas
36×36 in
COMMISSIONED by a client in Colorado

The commission brief simply said to paint the toys of his childhood in the Philippines. Male clients are a challenge for me because Instructions usually come in the form of a single sentence, if I’m lucky. More often than not, all I get are key words, nothing more. I first met this client when he sat behind me in English class way back in 1993. The last time I saw him was when I made a pot of adobong puti in his kitchen in Boston back in 2012.

Fun Facts:

1. Yellow was energising! The last time I used this for a background was in 2018. The painting’s overall palette was inspired by the company logo.

2. Five old-school toys and games, one being distinctly Filipino. Can you spot them? One is a nod to his love for travel. 

3. A profession he is passionate about. Given the theme revolved around toys and a child, can you guess his specific practice?

4. His westies and chihuahua. I can’t paint animals, but I can paint ears.

5. Funnily, I kept hearing an old chant in my head while working. Pronounced as ha-le ha-le, “hale-hale hoy!” is a phrase from the rhyme we sang while playing the Philippine version of rock-paper-scissors.

It tells a story of simpler times, of unhurried days under the rays of the sun. The artwork is about some of the things that brought us immeasurable joy, stuff that didn’t require a screen or batteries. Working on this piece reminded me of a time when we came home with grazed knees after running around outdoors shrieking with laughter with friends, when we sang in front of the electric fan, and when we spun around in place, with arms to the sides like wings, until we saw stars.