Spotlight: Isabel Maria Manalo
AW: What has creating art taught you about life?
IMM: Before giving birth to my first daughter Bella, my life was so focused around the making of my art and the forwarding of my career as an artist. Even if I was always conscious of what was going on around me in the world culturally and politically and also locally, what mattered most was carving out my path and how soon I could 'get there'. Now that I am a mother of two young girls and often find myself confronted with the minutia of every day life, I am more focused on the process of my work evolving rather than what I have and can accomplish. I hesitate to mention the cliche "Art is Life," but basically that is it in a very small nutshell. Making art certainly has confirmed my often wavering validity of its existence, especially in a time where we are going through countless tragedies of war, famine, the AIDS epidemic and all the natural disasters. I always hear a little voice in my head telling me that my work is meaningless and I really could be doing something more productive to make this a better and safer world to live in. However, we all have different roles and talents and you have to follow what you do and love best. I've learned to turn off the 'white noise' and that little voice, too. I believe everything has its relevance; it just may take some time to reveal what it is. It could be today on the 5 o'clock news, or 100 years from now in Art in America. What I've learned the most about my art and life is to enjoy what I'm going through now. I've relaxed (a little bit) about getting caught up in the competitive nature of being an artist and am basking in the multiple roles I uphold as mother, wife, daughter, teacher, [and] friend.
AW: Has being an artist helped in your cultural identity? If so, how?
IMM: If you mean culture as related to ethnicity and geography, and when you say 'help' you mean, cultivate or perhaps even extrapolate, then no. Actually, it's worked the other way around for me, where my cultural identity has informed and challenged my work as an artist. I've always been quite certain of my identity as a privileged Asian American who grew up in the Midwest now transplanted to the East Coast. I have always felt pressure to somehow make my cultural identity the focal point of my work by numerous professors in my past, but I've realized that whatever I create, my cultural identity is inherently imbedded in my work. It actually hindered my process by thinking about "who I am" too much because being Filipino American I believe, is an amalgamation of so much history (the Chinese, Spanish, American, Japanese) and today where so many Filipinos have migrated to every part of the world. To address "who I am" in my paintings is to ask ultimately "who are the Filipino people," and I simply was not interested in expressing that through my art. The titles in my current body of work allude to a specific event or place that clue the viewer into my personal life, however they are left open for the viewer to experience these treescapes on their own. I believe art is best when it leaves you asking questions, not giving answers.
AW: What are the main challenges of being a working artist-mom of today?
IMM: Time. Hands down. Uninterrupted time in my studio. Even if my oldest daughter (she's 2 ½) has playschool in the morning and even if I have someone come to watch my baby while I'm in the studio, it's a challenge to just focus and meditate. For one thing, I'm still nursing and the baby still wakes up at least a couple times during the night! I love being a mom and I adore my daughters more than anything in the world; however, it has been such a big change and challenge to find quiet time in my studio -- especially since it is in our house. Every moment I'm not in the studio, even if I'm with my kids, I'm thinking about my work. Whether it is driving, cooking, or brushing my teeth, I have a little notebook I carry wherever I go and I'm constantly jotting stuff down. This is how I'm making up for lost conceptual time in the studio. And I'm finding that I'm coming up with more interesting ideas now more than ever. Then, once I'm in the studio, it's all execution. I plan my time there now very carefully so it's not wasted.
AW: What are the sources of inspiration for your current work?
IMM: I did a show last year at the Flashpoint Gallery here in D.C. with a colleague of mine who is a sculptor. We titled the show "Wish You Were Here"; it's actually going to travel to Vox Populi, an alternative gallery space in Philadelphia this coming spring 2006. Anyway, for this particular show, all my paintings were inspired by specific places and events that happened in the Philippines. The outcome was abstractions derived from my memory, imagination, and manipulated photographs of these places and events. It was meant to be sentimental in its inception, but the images are ultimately bold and minimalist. I lived in the Philippines for a year right after I finished my undergraduate degree at Madison and I've visited many times after so I have lots of great stories and memories. My parents and older sister still travel back and forth many times in a given year, so I also get images and stories from their trips since sadly I haven't been back since Bella was born.
My work has always been about power and place in one way or another. Now, it has just become much more personal and specific in direct reference to my own life presently and how I was raised as a child. Places and events are so much an indication of who one is. I feel my current body of work -- which I call treescapes -- are a self-portrait of my life in a way. They are all places and events I am familiar with and are also an expression of my own self-awareness of my position of power.
Besides on the web at www.isabelmanalo.com and www.solomonfineartsinc.com, Isabel Manalo's current work can be seen in the following upcoming shows:2005/November-Boundaries: Contemporary Landscapes, Group Show with Kerry Kesler, Jiha Moon and Christine Buckman Tilman. Curated by Jeff Rhodes, Union Gallery, College Park, MD; 2006/January-Mid-Atlantic New Painting, /Curated by Jonathan Binstock, Ridderhof Martin Gallery at the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA; Faculty Show, Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington, D.C. ; April/Wish You Were Here, Two-person show with Jonathan Bucci, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
