Visual Arts
14/02/2024
Cover Study for Celestina's House
It's not every author who gets a chance to design her own book cover. Since I had a design background, Dundurn Press was gracious enough to let me have a hand when the cover development process reached an impasse. It came down to two designs--Dark Paradise (the one that's now on book retailers' websites) and this one, Night-Blooming. It was close, but Dark Paradise won out because it placed the book distinctly in the magical realism/tropical gothic universe with its lush, vaguely menacing feel. I do, however, remain very fond of this lovely first runner-up.
Katoliko Filipino Collage 1
One of the things that attracted my Acquiring Editor to this story is the romance and exuberance of Filipino Catholicism. I chose these images because they represent a memory of the culture in which I spent the first half of life. Here, we have the candle vendors who inhabited the doorways and plazas of the churches my mom visited during her novenas, the statue of Jesus Christ lying in his tomb, and the copper anting-antings (amulets) bearing the likenesses of angels and saints, sold by vendors near churches. The statue of the dead Christ is the same one that inhabited Paco Church, right next to Paco Catholic School, where I spent my grade school years. Every afternoon, while waiting for the school bus, my schoolmates and I visited the church, entered the tomb where the statue was interrered, and reverently touched the statue's feet with our lace-edged hankerchiefs. (I always had a fresh one in my pocket, ironed by my mom.) I remember how the darkened wood of the statue left the faint scent of sandalwood and candlewax on my hanky. Such old-fashioned gestures now seemed a relic from another world, but looking back, I think it's a very beautiful and visceral expression of faith.
Katoliko Filipino Collage 2
Baroquely decorated jeepneys, little boys selling fragrant sampaguita garlands, and religious devotees braving heat exhaustion are some the images that have been seared into my memory.
Katoliko Filipino Collage 3
Love and marriage and heavy dose of colonial history. The top images are from Intramuros, the historic walled city that was the Spanish empire's military and political base in Asia. The bottom images are from Obando, Bulacan--devotions to Our Lady of Salambao from women praying for children.
