Gallery of Philippine Contemporary Art

Michelle Tan

ARTIST STATEMENT:

            In my piece, I try to depict my interpretation on the impression of the human’s soul.  What drives and inspires us to live life? What makes us different yet the same with one another? What makes our life beautiful? These are just the basic question of people on what we seek in search of our “self”. Sometimes we try to create an identity with our race and culture. We also try to create an association with our identity with our environment wherein we find comfort and security. But as we go through the process day by day, identifying too much with the external factors tends to get us out of touch with our soul.

 At that point, we get confused and lost with our “self”. We are totally aware that we had already forgotten our own true nature. We can see that we are just running in circles over and over again as if nothing is happening which we find senseless. Then we reach a phase that we will be force by the circumstance of events to have a deeper reflection of our “self”.

Truth of the matter is, man will and always knows if he/she has loose touch with its soul. It is up to the person if he/she is willing to do something about it. Up to a certain point, we can still ignore the cries of our soul but when it reached to its pivotal point it will just explode inside and can’t be ignored.

It is important that man should constantly get in touch with their soul as the soul connects us to the higher understanding of life. It deepens our understanding in life and helps us find true joy, peace, beauty and happiness. The soul fills up our being that enables us to be creative, productive and loving. It helps us find our true identity and eventually lead us to experience deep contentment in our life.

As the artist, I try to express my statement through various intensity and moods of emotions by playing with the colors. The deeper the intensity of the colors the stronger it is so is the mood of the energy of the space. There’s a portion in the painting where there is a concentrated wave of figure or an entity moving. As the entity moves, its’ energy affects it’s surrounding. The entity is spreading its life force or energy with the environment. As man maybe aware of it or not, we always spread our energy to the earth. The entity in the said piece is the soul. Since the soul is formless, I did not paint any figures in this artwork. I just played with the waves of energy by depicting the intensity and flow of the energy and the most intense part is the soul as it is the life force itself. 

Kulay-Diwa  is a venue for Philippines and Southeast Asian Contemporary Art. Inaugurated on February 7, 1987, Kulay-Diwa, is strategically located within a cluster of communities South of Manila.  It has five independent exhibition areas able to accommodate large-scale works and a garden ideal for programs, performances and sculpture installations.  The goals of the gallery are to discover and promote the works of young, talented but deserving Filipino Artists and to foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions and other countries.

Kulay (Colour)

Diwa  (Spirit, Thought)

Michelle Tan, "Prelude", Oil on Paper

Michelle Tan, "Kasaganahan", Acrylic on Canvas, 183 x 122 cms., 2006

Michelle Tan, "Dance of Life", Acrylic on Canvas, 137 x 198 cms., 2005

Michelle Tan, "Awakening the Goddess" Acrylic on Canvas, 2008

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