Every Painting Tells A Story

This story is about a girl who left her homeland with a friend to find adventure in a far-off country.

If I had a nickel for every time I ever heard someone mention storytelling vis-à-vis marketing (or leadership or business, education or whatever), I’d be the Count of Monte Cristo (or well Elon Musk I guess in this reality, lol).

Yet there’s something to be said for storytelling in art; personally I’ve always believed that every piece of art, regardless of format ~ painting or sculpture, music or whatever ~ says something ~ even if the artist didn’t really mean to.

A lot of the time, that story is left up to the viewers or the audience ~ the story they tell themselves after experiencing the work. Sometimes, the story the artists meant to tell may never be discovered or understood, unless they explain it afterward (or someone explains it for them).

It can be a lot of fun to find these things out; it’s a lot like a treasure hunt or a detective mystery. You pick up clues here and there scattered all over the canvas and you get this eureka moment when it all comes together.

Sometimes, you already know the story, and the fun lies in looking at the picture and connecting the different elements in it to the narrative. More often than not, you also come away with a better understanding not just of the work but the artist behind it.

Recently, I shared this painting on my Instagram account where I’d hidden a tiny story not entirely unrelated but still separate from what this painting’s actually about.

Illustration projects aside, my work generally has some sort of back story (and even when it doesn’t, refer to paragraph two). But for this jillablog post I thought I’d share the stories behind some of my paintings ~ with some stories more hidden than others.
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Biag ni Lam-Ang ​

This one is one of my favourite things I’ve ever done so I thought I’d start with this one.

You can find the story here, and you’ll see I rather left out the bits where his shampoo-making process freaks out the nearby villagers, kills a crocodile, dresses in gold to go a-courtin’, defeats a giant and kicks his @$$ over the hills (nine, no less), does magic tricks to impress his girlfriend, sails on two golden ships for his wedding, and goes shellfish hunting (*gasp*, *pant*).

Well there are multiple versions of this epic (so I must’ve been working off one of them), and, you can’t blame a girl for trying to cram in as much as she could ^^;
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I love it when you smile

This one, like the Daydream Dance above, you really rather have to look for (although I’m hoping not too hard). There’s a jillamonster and a horsey in it playing tag all along the length of it. That’s a recurring theme in my work; I can’t tell you exactly what it is because I don’t know, myself.

Does the jillamonster catch up with the horsey here? Follow along and find out if you can; I’ve never been able to upload a good enough image because of the size ~ this is the longest piece I’ve ever done, hopefully not the last of its kind.
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JNM Redux

This is the second time I painted this sort of ‘mismatched lovers’ piece; the first time was way, way back in my early 20’s for a contest whose main point I obviously didn’t understand XD I’m not sure where that piece is now; I’m utterly ashamed of it but I’d like to hang on to it to remind myself of, well, where I came from, you know?

In that first piece, you really just see the centauride (or centauress) and the merman (‘Merman!’) (sorry, couldn’t help myself ^^). Here in Redux you see the whole march of seasons passing between them (or at least, I think that was what I was trying to convey). I was very attached to this piece, pity I don’t have it anymore.
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Selfish!

No points for this one or where I got the title, I guess. (I guess it should’ve been ‘SEL-FIIISH!!!’ XD) So sorry, I (again) couldn’t help myself, I love that film and of course I love the opera. I guess it was a little trite for the curator though because if memory serves me right it got edited out of the exhibit it was supposed to be in.  Pity again because I am fond of this one, because ~
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Wayside

Okay I’m a little, weird about sharing the story in this one because this one really is private. It could’ve been a part of my Reverie show, it’s that kind of daydream. But I think I can share the story, thus: A jillamonster was travelling with three friends who helped her along, and there were times she was the one protecting them. This piece highlights them taking a break on their journey.

Eventually, though, one of the friends left them, and in the end, the jillamonster had to continue her journey alone.
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Men o’ War

No points for this one either, and I hope you’ll pardon the puns (you know I can’t help it) ~ you see, back here red snappers are called Lapu-Lapu, and though Portuguese Man o’ Wars are found in the Atlantic (i.e. not just in Portugual), Magellan was Portuguese.

Unlike most of my stories, this one is actually true (although neither of them were mermen) ~ I got the details from Pigafetta’s account in Wikipedia.

Redmaria

This one is the story of a lady named Maria who loved to wear red (no kidding). She was so beautiful everybody adored her. I’m not sure why, but there’s a festival in her honour held every June in Polangui, Albay (pula is our word for red, and Angui is a nickname for Maria). 

What I didn’t know was that there was some dude who had a crush on Maria, but a witch who had a crush on that dude cursed Maria (well, that’s one way to get your man lol). No worries, though, because a nice fairy lifts the curse and saves the day. I wish I’d known that when I made this; it might have turned out quite different.
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Apo Duwaling Fairytale

Okay, this one I made up, drawing my inspiration from the Apo Duwaling festival (now known as the Kadayawan) in Davao.

Durian, the king of fruit, had a crush on Vanda, queen of orchids (Vanda sanderiana is the scientific name of Waling-waling (the orchid in question). Only, Haribon, the king of all birds (the Philippine Eagle, of course) (hari is our word for king and ibon = bird) had a crush on her, too. Too bad for him, though cos Vannie is so into Duri ^_^ Let’s hope Hari doesn’t make trouble for them ^_^
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Peter and the Wolf

No points for finding the story in this one either, lol. To this day I still don’t know whether I like Sting’s or David Bowie’s version best (that’s a puppies vs kittens choice).

Fun fact: Someone expressed interest in this painting, but changed their mind because there were guns in it ^^
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Musical Bears

This one I made as a sort of going away x thank you present for an ex-boss who was a cellist. As I was trying to remember the details of the story behind this, I found I had written it down here, and as it happens with much of my work, the story kind of just, happened while I was in the middle of it.

I’m glad I wrote it down, though, because I had quite forgotten it ~ while it’s true paintings do remind me of what was going on with me at the time I was painting them, it also often happens that even I forget the micro-stories I embed in my work (old age, I guess).


Now that I’m giving myself a little time to breathe and rethink the way I’m doing things in the jillapractice, I’m so looking forward to letting more stories happen in my work. I can’t wait to see where they lead and what comes out in the end on the paper (or canvas).

I’m happy to think that I’ll be able to take my time putting in all the little details and wondering whether people will even notice that there’s a story going on in that little world I created. Don’t laugh, but to me, every painting or drawing I make is like, a little reality or dimension your mind jumps into (or well my mind jumps into) ~ think Bert’s pavement chalk pictures in Mary Poppins.

I just hope that where the stories lead or where the new direction in my practice goes, it’ll be to brighter, happier places ~
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* Interested in any of the pieces in this post?
Drop me a line to let me know
and I'll let you know if it's still available,
or how soon I can make something similar just for you.
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