Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day archive

(Photo source: Filipino American Artists Network)

October 3, 2011: "Tax Dollars Kill" by Mike "Dream" Francisco
October 4, 2011: "Manny 'Pacman' Pacquiao, Fighting Pride of the Philippines" by Cristopher Nolasco
October 5, 2011: "Lotus Blossom" and "Dragon Lady" by Allison Torneros
October 6, 2011: "Skeedo" by Leo Valledor
October 7, 2011: "Beachcomber" by Alfonso Ossorio
October 10, 2011: "Why I Hate Europeans" by Manuel Ocampo
October 11, 2011: 1990 graffiti art by Mike "Dream" Francisco
October 12, 2011: "Shannyn Sossamon" by Cristopher Nolasco
October 13, 2011: "How Mali Lost Her Accent" by Pacita Abad
October 14, 2011: "The City" by Allison Torneros
October 17, 2011: "Echo" by Leo Valledor
October 18, 2011: "Five Ways to Exit a Window (Defenestrate)" by Allison Torneros
October 19, 2011: "Red Dress" by Cristopher Nolasco
October 20, 2011: "Four Seasons" by Leo Valledor
October 21, 2011: "The Conception of Bliss" by Allison Torneros
October 24, 2011: "Lou Reed" by Manuel Ocampo
October 25, 2011: "Hello Like Before" by Leo Valledor
October 26, 2011: "Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy)" by Eliseo Art Silva
October 27, 2011: "Dancing Couple" by Pacita Abad
October 28, 2011: 1990 graffiti art by Mike "Dream" Francisco
October 31, 2011: "Thriller" by Allison Torneros

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Thriller" by Allison Torneros

This is the final "Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day" post.

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: 1990 graffiti art by Mike "Dream" Francisco

(Photo source: Art Crimes)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Dancing Couple" by Pacita Abad

(Photo source: The late Pacita Abad's webmaster)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana (Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy)" by Eliseo Art Silva

(Photo source: BakitWhy)

At 145 feet x 25 feet, muralist Eliseo Art Silva's 1995 piece "Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana" in L.A.'s Historic Filipinotown is the largest Filipino American mural in the United States. Author Carlos Bulosan, California farm workers movement leaders Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong, 11th Philippines President Corazon Aquino, her assassinated husband Senator Ninoy Aquino, Renaissance man and political activist José Rizal and Lapu-Lapu--the cat who whupped some colonialist ass in 1521--are among the figures whom Silva depicted in "Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana."

(Photo source: Filipino American Artists Network)

(Photo source: Filipino American Artists Network)

Hidden Hi Fi: Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana Mural ("Filipino Americans: A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy" Mural) from Out the Window on Vimeo.

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Hello Like Before" by Leo Valledor

(Photo source: Vangobot)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Lou Reed" by Manuel Ocampo

(Photo source: fARTiculate)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "The Conception of Bliss" by Allison Torneros

(Photo source: Allison Torneros)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Four Seasons" by Leo Valledor

(Photo source: Rehistoricizing.org)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Red Dress" by Cristopher Nolasco

(Photo source: Cristopher Nolasco)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Five Ways to Exit a Window (Defenestrate)" by Allison Torneros

(Photo source: Allison Torneros)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Echo" by Leo Valledor

(Photo source: Rehistoricizing.org)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "The City" by Allison Torneros

(Photo source: Allison Torneros)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "How Mali Lost Her Accent" by Pacita Abad

Women Artists of Color: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas summarizes this 1991 painting by Pacita Abad (1946-2004):

Abad notes: "When Mali came here she didn't speak English, but when I saw her recently I said, 'Mali, how come you lost your accent?' She replied. This is how the kids talk in school.' She has to do it because she has to blend in." Here Mali, a young Laotian and Vietnamese girl wearing a Benetton purse, is depicted in the center of the work; surrounding her are computers and the banners and facades of renowned American universities such as Harvard, University of California at Berkeley, and Yale. Mali clearly has "made it" in America; nevertheless, Abad underscores that the educational opportunities offered her have a steep price: Mali's loss of her language and culture.

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Shannyn Sossamon" by Cristopher Nolasco

From a recent blog post by San Francisco-based film critic Jeffrey M. Anderson about the woman in the above painting, part-Filipino actress Shannyn Sossamon, who started out as a club DJ (peep her memorable 2001 Gap ad with legendary scratch DJs Rob Swift and Shortkut below):

Sossamon is back in a new movie by Monte Hellman -- a genuine cult auteur -- and it's arguably her best work and a must-see. In Road to Nowhere, she plays a mysterious actress, hired due to her indefinable allure, and damned if she doesn't pull it off. She's striking, and startling, so much so that her every move has the power to hypnotize and enchant. And yet she's adorable... and human. If it were in a big, mainstream movie, this role would make her a big star.

Today I'd swap her career for Jolie's any old day. Jolie has tread such a stagnant, safe path that she has practically become frozen, while Sossamon remains warm and elastic. She's a beautiful mutt with an amazing grab-bag of heritages. I have never met her, but she strikes me as a genuine oddball, a girl who doesn't mind getting a bad haircut just to see how it looks, and keeps some low-top Converse in the closet. She probably mixes and matches expensive designer tops with vintage, rummage-sale bottoms (and vice versa). I see her as low-maintenance on Sundays and, on every other day, she's trouble. But it's the best kind.

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: 1990 graffiti art by Mike "Dream" Francisco

(Photo source: Art Crimes)

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Why I Hate Europeans" by Manuel Ocampo

Skinny Puppy used the anti-imperialist "Why I Hate Europeans" as the cover for its 2007 album Mythmaker.

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Beachcomber" by Alfonso Ossorio

Alfonso Ossorio (1916–1990) was an abstract expressionist and a protege of Jackson Pollock's (as well as an early championer of Pollock's works).

Filipino American History Month Painting of the Day: "Skeedo" by Leo Valledor

(Photo source: Rio Rocket Valledor)

Leo Valledor (1936–1989) was a pioneer of what was known as "geometric abstraction."

"So I really envy Leo Valledor for growing up in the Fillmore District of San Francisco in the 1940's and 50's, where jazz was as alive and kicking as it ever would be," wrote Lawrence Rinder at Rehistoricizing.org. "Leo had a hard time as a kid, with parents who disappeared and God knows what kinds of racism to deal with. Jazz must have sounded like pure possibility to him. And abstract painting much the same... Geometry was his style and color was his tone."

Filipino American History Month Painting(s) of the Day: "Lotus Blossom" and "Dragon Lady" by Allison Torneros

L.A. artist Allison Torneros, designer of the Nom Nom Truck logo and founder of the graphic design studio CircleDot, explains this two-part painting that she created for a Women's History Month art exhibit in 2008:

There are two main stereotypes of Asian women in America. One is of the 'Dragon Lady', an Asian woman of exotic beauty, who is scheming, calculating, catty, sneaky, hypersexual, back-stabbing, and untrustworthy. Next you've got 'the Lotus Blossom', the quiet, silent, submissive Asian girl, passive, eager to please, and prudent. Over time this stereotype evolved into that of the 'Model Minority'... the straight A overachiever, obedient to the wishes of her parents...both types are silent in different ways. I used my own face for these paintings because I've been personally subject to both of these stereotypes. And of course, neither stereotype fits who I really am.