Finding life in blank chaos: Alex Maceda on her unconventional artistic path
My feature in the Philippine Star, the nation's largest newspaper
Good morning! Delighted to share a feature from The Philippine Star, the nation’s largest newspaper, who profiled me for their Arts & Culture section last month.
I had the opportunity to sit down with one of their writers when I was in Manila for my grandparents’ 60th (!) wedding anniversary in March. Though I was raised in California, I spent every summer of my childhood in Manila so consider it my second-home; my parents both grew up there, all my extended family still lives there, and so much of how I see the world has been shaped by having one foot in each country.
The article outlines my journey (including my failed plans to spend Spring 2020 in the Philippines), my move to Joshua Tree and the inspiration it has brought to my practice, my career in NFTs and my hope to do more work in the Philippines in the future. Maraming salamat, Phil Star!
You can read the full article here.
From “Finding Life…”:
"My art is very inspired by nature and spirituality, which for me are pretty intertwined, and literally it's my environment in Joshua Tree," she said of her current residence where she sees the sunrise on one horizon and the sunset on another.
"People think of the desert as this dry, barren landscape where everything is dead, but living there I experience it as very alive," Alex continued. "Even when you picture the desert, it's just brown — one swath of color — but living there, it's much more dynamic and that's what I bring into my artwork."
Speaking of colors, her primary inspiration is the sky which is obviously very blue but notes that sunsets have all kinds of colors and she even compared them to the famous Manila Bay sunset.
"You can have super bright orange contrasted with blue. I watch the sunset every day, so the dynamism of the colors changing so quickly is very inspirational to me," Alex carried on, mentioning that the sun is an apparent part of her work.