IT’S A DOG-EARED DOG WORLD (COMMISSIONED)

Sometimes the brief is so vague, and sometimes it’s so specific that it leaves me stumped: ‘I want it to look cold but I want to feel warm. And windows. I want windows.”

This painting is a story in and of itself. A woman’s life and journey, who she is, where she lived and some of her favorite things in this world. It says so much about one’s character when they want to ditch the glamour of a typical portrait and asked to be seen in her element.

Fun facts:

1. She is a writer and a bonafide bibliophile. She also gave me my first Moleskine.

2. She was a prominent dj of Manila’s premier rock station, and if you hear her voice, you’ll know. There’s a nod to her career somewhere in that head or hers.

3. She loves her corgis.

I asked her to name her painting, as with my last three clients but she deferred and asked me to put this piece in a nutshell. It’s the part of the process where you don’t explicitly do anything but it takes a whole lot of time. So you sit and do nothing, and let the work steep in its own energy. Sometimes, it can tke days or weeks to come up with something apt.

In the midst of our conversation last night, she exclaimed, “I love the dog ears!” And then a lightbulb moment. Hence, my first post-SG commission piece made in the Philippines shall be called:

IT’S A DOG-EARED DOG WORLD, 2023
Acrylic / Mixed Media on Canvas
36 x 36 inches
COMMISSIONED by a collector in Manila

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