likhain:Aswang, 2014, ink.In my motherland, in inangbayan, the supernatural lived as close to me as
likhain:Aswang, 2014, ink.In my motherland, in inangbayan, the supernatural lived as close to me as my skin. This is what I am trying to embody in my pieces.I chose a woman in a forest as the focal point for Aswang — nothing overtly monstrous about her, so long as one looks politely away from her cache of picked-clean skulls. The image of aswang I grew up with was someone wild, mad, ravenously hungry; monstrous, savage, bestial. Insane, and the furthest thing from beauty in the grime and gore. I counter this with my outcast, calling birds — ghosts — flame spirits — to her hand, perched comfortably on an unearthly tree whose branches are hung with dark moons, weaving magnificent all around her as if mantled by power made visible, reveling in wildness, enchantment, the impossibility of being understood or known. I say: the forest is an intricately woven spell. The forest is cradle and bower and shelter. The forest is an open mouth, waiting, hungry.This work was made possible by my wonderful Patreon patrons. Thank you so much. This is the kind of art you enable, that you support. -- source link