EP93: Stitching the Cosmos: The Tactile Nomadism of Pacita Abad | Trapunto, Abstract, Activism

[00:00:00]Keep on painting. Do it every day. Make a living of it. That's it. Be a businessman. You have to think of your work as a 9-5 job. You have to think of it as a way for you to make a living.

[00:00:12]So, what I'm trying to say is be a busi- >> [music] >> It's got the voice, but it's got the variety when it's a very serious workshop for a a week pass. Ideally, this is good for a week and you can do about 10 masterpieces after a week. You have to categorize yourself also.

[00:00:58]Or which day would you have to be want to do doors of Binondo? You want to do doors of Sampaloc? Doors of Batangas.

[00:01:06]You can tell yourself if you are serious and you week that you are there, you just do a series of different doors. If that's the theme that your teacher does.

[00:01:14]Laugh it.

[00:01:15]One workshop I did, they used carpets.

[00:01:18]You know, your wall-to-wall carpets.

[00:01:20]Fantastic. They cut up the carpet. They went to the carpet store. They get one roll of car- carpet and they just use carpets. Sometimes you can just use foam.

[00:01:30]Foam is also good, but the problem with foam is doesn't last long, you know? But they decided it will last long. Another thing you can do is when they are kids, like I do a lot of kid uh children's workshop, you know? For 1 week, I can do five different categories. When they are kids, they love the theme of mask.

[00:01:49]Mascara around the world. So, they go to their textbook and look at the masks that every country has, you know? Mask is always very very good even for adults because mask really represents two personalities, maybe three, maybe four. And what you put in your canvas may be your alter ego. Very special arts is very good for handicap kids. I find them very talented because you lack a certain sense as now we have five senses and you lack one like you're deaf or you try to do it more on your work because you don't have that, no?

[00:02:22]I I noticed that for handicap kids.

[00:02:24]Elderly, oh this is great. I did a a workshop on elderly in Maryland. These are all like uh Alzheimer patients. You know, what do they call this here Manila? Ulyani. I did this last year with uh who who are very who are who used to be artists, no? They used to be artists but they're Ulyani. I put all the buttons, I brought all the materials. I put the buttons on the table, no? All of a sudden, I saw these two of these elder citizens. I said, "Where are the buttons?" He said, "I ate them already."

[00:02:55]They thought it was like M&M's. They ate the buttons. My god, second day I was there, I did this for a a month with this Ulyani. Every day was a a story, you know? The second day I was there, I was looking for two students. They were not showing up. You know, these are like 65 years old. I said, "What happened to these two Ulyani?" They were in the bathroom for 3 hours and a man or woman, they were in the bathroom. I didn't know what they were doing. So, finally I concentrated on what This Ulyani, they would bring their ballet shoes and they said, "I was a ballerina." They were just fantasizing. But wow, the kind of work ABS-CBN did a documentary on this workshop I did, no? And showed it. As a matter of fact, I would like maybe we can show your workshop. We can ask Cora.

[00:03:39]It would be nice to have a a corner here to show them what this diverse group of people then you can say you showed it in Metropolitans.

[00:03:48]>> What material is this uh Pacita?

[00:03:50]>> This is canvas and then they primed it.

[00:03:52]It's always good to use canvas because it's durable. When did I start doing this trapunto? 85. So, 99 minus 85, 40 14 years that I've been doing this trapunto. I always use canvas. I experimented on the straw you banig.

[00:04:08]Banig is a good one, huh? I experimented on banig, but you have to prime the banig a lot of time. Prime it when you prime it, you don't prime it very thick.

[00:04:16]You prime it very thin, but you have to prime it really well. it on bark cloth.

[00:04:21]Maganda 'yung bark, but the best one is the canvas. That's why >> Have you ever worked on wood?

[00:04:26]>> Wood?

[00:04:27]>> Yeah. If not, why not?

[00:04:29]>> Wood? Let me see. No, but I had worked on plastic like shower curtains. Shower curtains would be nice. Wood because it's very hard on me. I don't know.

[00:04:38]Maybe I haven't tried it. It hasn't done on me. You know Alfonso Osorio? Do you know Alfonso Osorio? He does trapunto on wood. He doesn't know it's trapunto. He puts a lot of shells and found objects on the beach on his work. He puts it on his work, and it's wood. Alfonso Osorio, one of our foremost painters. Lives in New York, no? A lot of Mexicans use What do you call this? Because I did a workshop on in Mexico. What do you call this? Parang straw, but it's not straw.

[00:05:04]It's like plastic. You can use plastic.

[00:05:06]Plastic is good, huh?

[00:05:07]>> In your handling your workshop, do you tell a student that she's doing it the wrong way or there is no wrong way?

[00:05:13]>> There's no wrong way. She might use the wrong material. She might over materialize it. So, you have to to tell them, "Hey, control or I have a limit."

[00:05:21]It's always nice to encourage and discourage. Discourage to use a lot of material. It's always nice to experiment, too, you know? To me, the best way to learn is to make a mistake, and then you do it over again. If anybody here is finished and wants to go through trapunto right now, you show me the materials you have because it will take a while this trapunto work, no? You show me the materials and I can tell you.

[00:05:43]>> Do you use a machine to sew or it has to be by hand?

[00:05:46]>> Oh, good. The first time I was doing this, I I like it fast, you know. So, I bought this Bernina sewing machine that has 18 stitches on it. And I started stitching sewing it, but then it's not the same. So, I put down That was the first time. So, I don't know. This Bernina was very expensive, you know.

[00:06:03]The sewing machine. After three trapunto, I did not I could not use the machine anymore. It's very important to uh to use your hands so that you can feel it. You can feel the work.

[00:06:15]The answer is no more machine. Yeah.

[00:06:17]>> How do you uh fight the impression that the students uh are doing folk art or craft instead of good of high art?

[00:06:23]>> What's wrong with craft? I like craft.

[00:06:25]All these highfalutin critics always try to distinguish To me, anything that's made by hand is art.

[00:06:31]>> Is it a kind of uh a form of cultural imperialism that they should always put down the crafts from the uh non-Western world?

[00:06:39]>> I think so. Cuz I I was just telling Steve earlier in New York, you know, there are a lot of Jewish critics before, you know? Who went to these Ivy League schools and thought of They have their own brood of artists and who are doing all these very sophisticated art and always thinking that whatever is coming from our places folk art. And then the mass intrusion of this art to New York or to San Francisco, they cannot avoid it anymore. So, they have to study our art. They have to study our our way of painting. They have to study our issues. Many of the issues in the states are immigration. They have to study uh the situation where we are. So, they have to educate themselves again.

[00:07:17]Or they have to have new curators, which is happening. Many of the museums in New York have Asian curators, Asian or Latin curators. It's important.

[00:07:25]>> Many of the workshop participants are obviously interested in painting. For example, if they take you as a kind of a role model, how should they pursue their art as a form of uh career?

[00:07:37]>> You have to be independent. Uh how do you do that? After you do some paintings, you take photographs of it.

[00:07:43]You enter competitions. You be aggressive. You go to all these art galleries and look at artworks. Go to art dealers and show your work. You start in your own community, sell your work to your family. Anything that you give free, they will always think that it's free. So, you start making trades.

[00:07:59]Maybe you can't afford a dentist. So, you you make a trade with your dentist, which I have done for my house in Washington. I was renting a house. Every month I would give a a painting to my landlord. Luckily, I have a landlord who appreciates art. For 12 months, I did not pay my rent. I paid my rent. I just give an artwork. She is my old my dancers. She had five sons and no daughters. So, she really liked dancers, you know, and uh and she wanted to have a girl. Whether it could be uh selling it in book museum shops. Put a corner there of your note card, you know, baseball hats that you painted.

[00:08:33]That's another thing. Next time we do wearable art. Wearable art that you can bring Start peddling your art as early as possible.

[00:08:47]>> [music]