FOLK DANCES

Dancing is the loftiest,the most moving,the most beautiful of the arts,because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself."- Havelock Ellis

It's true there's no place like home, no matter how humble. When my husband & I got married on 1971, our first home was only a one bedroom apartment at La Fayette St., Los Angeles, but to us it was a castle. The apartment was located near my job at Trade Service Publication, & so I just crossed the street. In 1972, my husband found an engineering job at Litton Industries in Canoga Park (SFV) California. So we bought a brand new, single, one story house w/ 4 bedrooms in a place called "Hidden Lake" in Canoga Park. As an artist I was deeply attracted to the lovely lake and serenity of the area. We bought a house located around the lake. We could access the lake from our backyard-where we could go fishing, row boating, feed the ducks and walk around the lake. We lived there for 14 years.

FOLK DANCES OIL PAINTINGS IN FAMILY ROOM

During 1977, we moved next door because we fall in love with this model home.We liked the layout of the house, the cathedral ceiling,detailed stuffs that came with it, like fancy faucets in the bathrooms, papered wall to wall, lush and thick white shag carpeting,gorgeous wardrobe mirror on the master bedroom, wall to wall mirror on the dining area, and many more. It was professionally decorated and matched our theme color, which is yellow.

To fill an empty wall in our family room, I painted these four Philippines folk dances. The Philippines, where I was born, is well known for its many beautiful folk dances. The costumes are very colorful but I took the liberty to paint them in monochromatic color. To match the bamboo wall paper, I painted these folk dances in yellow, light lemon yellow, beige, white and added some sienna. I was pleased with the results.

When we moved to Valencia, Sta. Clarita (Ca.) we kept the same yellow as theme color. We displayed the folk dances on the wall leading up the stairs to our bedrooms. Later, my first cousin Cely (from Maryland) inherited two of the oil paintings. I kept the other two.

Painting#1-Salakot,Painting#2-Singkil,Painting#3-Itik-itik,

Painting#4-Pandango Sa Ilaw.