“Reading Bautista’s passages and knowing it came from one of his earlier works spoke to the primal instinct of my heritage. I felt the frustration of being lost, just as he eloquently shared
the experience in his text.

Before knowing I was assigned The Archipelago, I was preparing myself for Bautista’s more political bodies of work, but I’m thankful for exploring his interpretation of a part of Filipino history. It fueled
my drive to create my own expression, after not being able to do so for so long.”

“My visual interpretation coincides with the broken-linear storytelling that I got while studying his poetic vernacular. It shows the story of a person that lives in a manifested chaos inevitable within the metro. They only find clarity by returning to the roots of our heritage – nature and simplicity.

The auditory element of my art is to offer pieces of personal history. I included a QR code that directs you to an existing Playlist I was listening to on Spotify. This will help the viewer experience moments in time when I was making the specific spread.”

“It took me a while to finish the text, and I was thinking how I wanted to let others experience Cirilo Bautista through me. I had many ideas and art styles I wanted to try but somehow, nothing seemed to suit the emotions Bautista expressed, until after several tries, I found the perfect match for the intense emotions and passions he wrote.”

“The only challenge I had was confidence. Before this zine, I neglected to create purely for self expression for several years. A part of myself was repressed, and it took a while to unearth that comfortability to meet material with paper again.

I was the last to finish from the list of artists that Sir Torres collected to be part of this project, so that gives you an idea on how much digging and bouncing in and out of quitting I had to endure. But it was worth it.”

“This project gave me the opportunity to find the path leading to my confidence in creating again. It is a refreshing feeling to have someone believe in what I do,
after shutting myself out of it for so long.
This zine was created with willow charcoal and 6b compressed soft charcoal pencils on 200 gsm watercolor paper. Blending was done by hand. It was then scanned and digitally refined for the finished look. If it’s rough, give me a break. I haven’t done this in a while haha. I want to thank Sir Gerry Torres for giving me this opportunity to find myself again in paper, and to everyone who knew I was doing this and gave me their constructive criticism and support.”

“I think for the most part it was the lack of art materials, and the lack of funding
for art materials. I had to make do with what I had.There is still that feeling
of paralyzing unproductivity, so there were days where I really had to step out
and absorb my surroundings (from a safe distance.)”