It all started when Pat Frades of Nova Gallery Manila suddenly contacted me during the last quarter of 2015. She asked if I was interested in joining a 3-man show. I didn’t have second thoughts so I said ‘Yes!’ right away. At that time I was looking for a place where I could exhibit my works, so my conversation with Pat was timely. The 3-man show includes me, Pejie Abia, and Raine Sarmiento. All of us just met for the first time but we got along pretty well immediately.

Fast forward to the first quarter of 2016, we had a couple of meetings to decide what the concept will be. Though we had two things in common in our artworks, like using watercolor and using female subjects, we had different concepts in mind. And since each of our concepts are distinct yet diverse in its own right, we called the show “Diversity”.

My concept revolves around the similarities of women and nature. I wanted to show in my artworks how majestic yet fragile both are. I wanted to highlight their importance and diversity, that if you look around, you’ll see the trails of their existence and how it touches our daily lives. I searched deep into myself as to how I’d create this concept visually. I (literally) had to climb a mountain just to find that eureka moment. Thankfully I did, and gave birth to 8 artworks.

On the day of the opening, people came. A LOT of people. Even those people who I didn’t expect would come. It kind of made me emotional. I tried my best not to cry because that day was special to me and it was my dream to be back into doing exhibits! Last time I had my work exhibited was back in college and that was like 7 years ago! I really am glad to be back. And I’m thankful to Pat, Pejie and Raine for this wonderful event and I’m hoping I’ll be having more shows with these people.

Diversity show is still up for viewing until this August 27, so if you haven’t gone to Nova Gallery yet, you still have a week to visit. Nova Gallery is located in La Fuerza Compound along Chino Roces Avenue and is open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. For artwork inquiries kindly e-mail Nova Gallery at gallerynova@gmail.com.