_The Glorious Mysteries: The Assumption of Mary Into Heaven_

 

The Glorious Mysteries: The Assumption of Mary Into Heaven

Oil on cradled canvas

6' x 4.5'

December 11 - 20, 2020

In this painting, Mary is assumed into heaven above a tropical, Philippine landscape. She is dressed in 1920s carnival queen attire; this was a huge, annual pageant that was looked forward to in San Fernando, Pampanga where I was born, through the onset of the Second World War. 

The ribbons round Mary's waist are representative of the contemporary movements for gender equality, breast cancer awareness, and the fight against domestic violence on women and children, which she brings to heaven like prayer banners.

I deliberately syncretized Mary's figure with that of Chang-O, the legendary, Chinese goddess of the moon, who obtained from her husband the elixir of immortality and then ascended to the moon. Interestingly, the Catholic feast day of the Assumption, August 15, is closely followed, from mid-August to September depending on the lunar year, by the Chinese Moon/Mooncake Festival. It was typical of the early Catholic Church to syncretize its feast days with "pagan" festival dates.

The planet Venus, a symbol of woman, shines at the top of the painting.

The pandemic is still on and I continue to refuse to admit outsiders and models into my studio. My granddaughter Aubrey sat for the figure of Mary.

The auditory stimulus I used while making this painting is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Oxwnf1lPE. Do listen to it while viewing the painting.

_THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ASCENSION_

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ASCENSION

Oil on cradled canvas

4.5’ x 6’

November 10 – 30, 2020 

This is Painting #19 for Maryhill School of Theology.

 

I deliberately omitted the five wounds on the body of Christ. I believe that we resurrect with whole and healthy bodies—otherwise the blind would resurrect as blind, the maimed would resurrect as maimed, and the brain-damaged would resurrect as brain-damaged. Besides, it is possible that early painters, especially during the Renaissance period, depicted the resurrected Christ with five wounds to distinguish him from pagan subjects such as Apollo, Dionysos, and Ganymede, which were still popular at the time alongside those with scenes from the life of Christ commissioned by the likes of the Medicis. (Note, as a matter of fact, while looking at the painting, that the figure could very well be that of Apollo, Dionysos, or Ganymede.)

 

In this painting, the Jewish merkabah is superimposed on the ascending Christ as a modern touch; its practitioners claim that the enraptured shall ascend—body, soul, and spirit—to heaven in star-shaped vessels of light.

We are still within the pandemic period and I continue to refuse to admit outsiders and models into our house. Jazz sat for the figure of Christ--all of my figures of Christ are proportioned to eight heads while all other figures, to seven heads--as he did for the figure of Christ in Feast of Tents.

This was the auditory stimulus I used while making this painting. Do listen to it while viewing the work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMf3wKBCPo

October 24, 2020: Installation Of Six Paintings At Maryhill School Of Theology

 

Feast of Tents

The Wedding Reception At Cana

The Wedding Reception At Cana/Feast Of Tents

The Annunciation

The Recasting Of Eve

RESURGET MARIA

DIPTYCH: _THE RECASTING OF EVE_

Paintings #17 and 18 for Maryhill School of Theology

DIPTYCH: _The Recasting of Eve_
Oil on cradled canvas
4.5’ x 12’
August 3 – September 2, 2020

There are four possible interpretations of this diptych:

The first is the modern one, indicating that a devotion to the divine and the spiritual liberates women from the shallow stereotypes imposed on them by modern society.

The second is that spiritual liberation frees women from being shackled to material things: physical beauty, wealth, fine clothing, jewels, and luxuries, among others.

The third refers to the Filipino women’s need to value their cultural and ethnic origins. The Left Panel has a split bamboo on the extreme left, alluding to the Philippine creation myth of man and woman, while all other items on the right represent Westernized values and trappings that tend to annihilate the authentic identity of Filipino women.

The fourth is traditionalist Catholic, in that the liberation of the Catholic woman is possible only through Mary and her Immaculate Heart, and that, if only appropriately perceived, Catholicism already liberates women from what they have wrongly perceived as non-liberation all along: nunhood, for instance, is a liberation from ephemeral, romantic attachments; the Sacrament of Matrimony is a liberation from a non-productive life to one of loving and caring for a family; and even the life of a single, Catholic woman can be a liberation from trivial concerns and an opportunity to pursue successful careers, intellectual achievements, and deeper, spiritual matters.

The following is the auditory stimulus I used while making this diptych. The auditory stimuli I use have nothing to do with the subject matter of my paintings:

_Our Lady of Candlemas_

Our Lady of Candlemas
Votive altar painting commissioned by Boy Martin
Oil on linen canvas
16" x 16"
June 27 - July 23, 2020

THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: THE ANNUNCIATION
Oil on cradled canvas
6’ x 4.5’
May 11 – June 26, 2020

(Painting #16 for Maryhill School of Theology)

It is a starry evening. Three angels rise from the white, bougainvillea blossoms outside a Fil-Hispanic mansion to serenade the maiden Mary, who looks out on them from a receiving room window. One of them, the archangel Gabriel, offers her a bouquet of Easter lilies and announces that she has been chosen to bear the Savior of the world.

While the visual springboard for this painting was the visitation of Zeus to Leda in the form of a swan, the theological allusion is to the angelic beings who visited Sarah to inform her that she would bear a son, Isaac. Both Isaac and Jesus, son of Mary, were delegated to be sacrifices, thus bringing both the Old Testament and New Testament events full circle.

The auditory stimulus I used while completing this painting was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMkpJKPPpzQ.

Paintings #14, 15, and 16 were done during the quarantine period. The only available model for Mary was my granddaughter Angelique, and for the three angels, Neil. 

_RESURGET MARIA (MARY RISES)_

RESURGET MARIA (MARY RISES)

Painting #15 for Maryhill School of Theology.

This painting was completed April 13 – 26, 2020. It will hang in the reference section on the ground floor of the library of Maryhill School of Theology.

RESURGET MARIA (MARY RISES)

Oil on cradled canvas

6’ x 4.5’

April 13 – 26, 2020 

In the evening sky the waning moon marks the transition of the Female from Nurturing Mother to Mature, Wise Woman. A conflagration, symbolic of oppressive forces, razes a neighbourhood on the left and a forest on the right. An old woman, a little boy, a little girl, and a young woman representing victims are at Mary’s feet.

Mary wields a Batangas dirk in her right hand and raises a banner emblazoned with Maryhill School of Theology’s logo and coat of arms in her left. She “comes with a sword” to defend and vindicate the oppressed and the marginalized. 

I believe that, should there ever be a modern revolution—cultural, social, or political—in this country or in any other country in this world, it will be led by women, mainly because they will have been fed up with the leadership and management of men. In a sense, it brings Joseph Campbell’s evolutionary cycle full circle.

The auditory stimulus I used while making this painting is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqJnhYabfsY. The auditory stimuli I use have nothing to do with the subject matter of my paintings.

DIPTYCH: _FEAST OF TABERNACLES (RIGHT PANEL)

DIPTYCH: FEAST OF TABERNACLES (RIGHT PANEL)

This painting was completed December 29 – 30, 2019 and February 25 – March 24, 2020.

FEAST OF TABERNACLES

Oil on cradled canvas

4.5’ x 6’

December 29 – 30, 2019 and February 25 – March 24, 2020 

A liberated Hebrew woman—she is wearing kohl and lip dye—invites the female viewer to join the company of women preparing to celebrate Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. While the Left Panel of the diptych depicts the first miracle of Jesus, the transformation of water to wine at a wedding reception in Cana, the Right Panel depicts technically Jesus’ last miracle, the transubstantiation of bread and wine to His Body and Blood, a miracle that is performed everyday by Catholic priests celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There are thematic differences between the Left Panel and the Right Panel. In the Left Panel Mary is the only woman present; in the Right eleven women—a Hebrew woman and ten women from different ethnic groups and historical periods in Philippine history take her place. In the Left Panel the interior is enclosed by secure walls and windows; in the Right the exterior has open structures. In the Left Panel there are two men; in the Right Jesus is the only male in the group.

Other paintings featuring Jesus with His male disciples show us the disciples waiting to be served. In this painting the women are proactive: they bring offerings and take action to make their celebration a success. While this painting was completed within the month celebrating Women’s Day, it is also a statement that Christianity could not have survived without the devotion, loyalty, contributions, and support of women, though they have been consistently downplayed in New Testament stories.

The auditory stimulus I used while painting this is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPIobqA9shc. Do view the painting while listening to it.