Creative Statement

Lily and Moon Studio

I was born and raised in the Philippines, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, and spent vacations on tropical islands and beaches which allowed me to see and interact with interesting animals on the land, sea, and sky. My artworks reflect organic forms, specifically of marine and plant life. I create art to feel a sense of the elemental and natural in a world that is increasingly becoming denuded, and I hope to share the soothing and invigorating colors of nature to others.

I’m interested in the abstraction of thought as it relates to form and color, and intend to capture the first moments of life when consciousness begins to take shape as well as the final moments when the same consciousness begins to fragment and fade. Ultimately, my art is a celebration of human life as part of a greater thread and process of ebbs and flows. I want to think it very specific ways while also looking at deep time or longue durée (lit. trans. long duration). What specters of existence precedes us and what follows after we are gone?

My writing practice and cooking are tied together because I believe that both for me have a defined relationship with storytelling, placemaking, and articulation. Ingredients are the words, dishes are the sentences, and menus are the chapters that make up the story of an establishment. What I enjoy most about writing short stories is the ability to explore places from memory and imagination, and to be able to create a vessel that reflects the emotions of and between my characters.

I write stories that retain the memories, experiences and sensations of growing up in Manila in the late 90s and early 2000s, while adapting to and assessing my response to how the world outside my mind and body is changing. I write against forgetting who I was, am, and will be.

It’s been roughly twenty-one years and I’m still writing. I continue to produce stories and consume them. Having moved to the United States, I am now what is considered a diaspora writer. My life has changed dramatically since first moving to New York City as a graduate student to getting married and making a career pivot into the culinary arts following the Corona Virus pandemic. In this current iteration of my practice, I often think about how I perceive myself now, my relationship with identity and geography, and what sorts of truths-behind-fiction do I want to impart to others.

I write about lives and cultures from the Philippines which I believe ought to continue existing and thriving.

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I began my career in the arts as a museum worker and freelance art writer in Manila. I hold degrees in Art Studies from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and an MFA in Art Writing and Criticism from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. From 2018 to 2020, I was a graduate fellow at the Asian Cultural Council New York. I have written about art for the Brooklyn Rail, Variable West, Burnaway Magazine, and Women in the Arts, Inc. I currently write Fiction and work as a Line Cook for an entertainment company in Central Florida. A list of my literary and art writings can be found Here.