Jehan Salim

“Fernando Amorsolo” Amorsolo is well known in the Philippines for his paintings depicting rural provincial life of which he has made 177. As a child he would sell water color postcards near a book store to passersby to help make ends meet for his family.

“Nobo Kumar Bhadra” While he never had the opportunity to finish school as a child, Bhadra used to paint banners for a movie with his father which he used his talents as a painter to paint designs on rickshaws. He had a niche of painting movie poster style type paintings on rickshaws that had a dynamic feel to them. In relation to his movie inspired paintings this illustration is a take on him being in a movie poster as an action movie character.

“Zainul Abedin” Being one of Bangladesh’s most prominent painters, some of his most famous works is a series of charcoal sketches depicting the living situations of people during the Great Famine of Bengal in the 40s depicting a grim period. This piece portrays Abedin’s childhood at the Brahmaputra River where his village is at which is a common subject in his other paintings.

“Virginia Ty-Navarro” When she was younger, Ty-Navarro studied at a Catholic school, this is a reimagining hypothetical look at her as a child inspired by the Virgin Mary who takes the form of a statue. This statue known as the “Statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace”, is a large sculpture of the Virgin Mary set in the EDSA Shrine in Manila.

“Ferdousi Priyabhashini” Known for her abstract wooden sculptures, Priyabhashini had a job as a phone operator at a jute mill to help out her family when she was young. She had gone through a lot of hardship as a woman who went through Bangladesh’s Liberation War but prevailed despite it all. While her actual sculptures are abstract in nature the sculptures taking the form of different telephones is a call back to her job as a phone operator.

“Maningning Miclat” While she is mostly a poet first, Miclat has done Zen bamboo ink paintings of which this piece is inspired by showing a vision of her looking at her family crossing the bridge from China to the Philippines. Before she was born her parents emigrated from their home to China to escape the political climate at the time, when she was a teenager however, she and her family emigrated back to the Philippines. With her upbringing her identity as a Filipino growing up in China then coming to her parents’ country was a point of contention in coming to terms to her identity.

“SM Sultan” Growing up in a poor family, Sultan was not able to finish school and he as a child would go with his father to work as a mason. However, despite his circumstances his drive to create art is strong and during times when not working would draw using charcoal the houses his father would build. The illustration here depicts a snapshot of the artist himslef as a child drawing while his father lovingly watches. He was only able to pursue art as a career thanks to the help of his village’s local zamindar who funded his education.

“Paulina Constancia” Known for her colorful works Constancia considers her work to be “naïve art” which is art done by an artist who has none or lacks the education or training to create art which is akin to folk art. She is a Filipino artist based in Vancouver, Canada. This piece is inspired by the art she has done which is also a homage to her art and home city of Cebu.

“Hashem Khan” Known for his paintings on Bangladesh’s rural life, he was a young boy when he the witnessed WW2 RAF planes fly in the sky around when World War 2 ended. This is my take on what his perspective as a child would hypothetically be seeing these planes in the form of paper ones.

“CJ de Silva” In her childhood years, de Silva was considered an art prodigy at 10 and She was part of a children’s milk commercial for the Promil brand in the 90s showcasing her as a “golden child”. Now she works mostly as an art director in her adult years but still does art. The context of this is a tongue in cheek take on missing people in milk cartons that used to be prominent in the 80s, although while said artist is not “missing” but actually not a missing child but a grown up still living her life.

But Where Are You Really From?