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Welcome to Club Rambutan’s Breaking it Down (BID) series, where we shed light on the different areas of operations that make our organization the following three things: A Creative Collective (Event Planning, Social Media, Rambutan Roundup Newsletters) A Digital Residency (Cohorts, Artist Resource Group (ARG), Artist Alumni) A Magazine (Formatting, Shipping Logistics, Packaging Design) This article will explain a major social aspect of Club Rambutan’s creative collective, the Rambutan Roundup Newsletters (RR for short). You might be wondering: "If Club Rambutan already has a magazine, why do you also have newsletter?" Our magazine comes out every 6-7 months. This is about the same amount of time for one cohort to complete its cycle through our digital artist residency. By the end of this term, the respective cohort's issue is published, meaning each of the artists' original projects and interviews are finally revealed. However, half a year is a looooooong time to work in silence. Our monthly newsletter lets the CR team bridge this gap by engaging with our followers in a more fun, frequent (and more candid) manner. The RR also gives a chance to our internal Club Rambutan team members to share more about ourselves, too! This might sound counterintuitive, but we believe that a "successful" creative collective is one whose members are already active in other pre-existing art communities around them. Anyone can make, lead, and own something if all they want to do is to prove that they could. But to truly unite and move people - especially through art - such an organization only grows stronger from what its learned from others, and in the process, itself. Our mission is purely based on a collaborative approach (just read our 3 guiding values on the bottom of our home page). Skill sharing , being a villager , and representing a higher purpose are not only the standards we use to select our cohort artists, but it's also what we look for in our team members to uphold. With that being said, the RR also lets us explore and immerse ourselves in our neighboring creative scenes. Our writers often go out and attend, interview, and review local events, businesses, organizations, and current events and trends. Our platform may be small, but we're keen to spread the word about other initiatives that align with our mission. “OK, but why are there TWO newsletters?” There are currently two cities that the Rambutan Roundup focuses its content on: San Francisco & Phoenix. This is because these locations are where our in-person teams (“branches”) are based in. To clarify: our cohort artists can be based anywhere in the world, but that’s only because our artist residency is completely online (and so are the team members of our Artist Resource Group). Right now, our newsletters help us build stronger relationships with our community members in our respective branches. Since Cohort 4, we've garnered a larger number of social media followers who aren't based in either city, so the immediate goal is to improve RR infrastructure so that we can create newsletter content that doesn't exclude them. “How many writers do y’all have?” Currently, we have two Managing Editors, one for each city. There can be anywhere between one to three other Content Writers for each branch that report up to them. The Editor in Chief may also occasionally write for either newsletter depending on the capacity of each M.E. (keep in mind we are all 100% volunteers), and we have one Newsletter Designer, too. At the end of each month, the Newsletter Designer takes the final articles (which are individually published on this site under the menu option, the rambutan roundup ), and formats them all onto Substack. Substack is the literal newsletter where all the articles are “packaged” in for their respective city and month, and are then distributed via an email blast to our subscribers. You can subscribe to the newsletters via our Linktree . Our squad works together to brainstorm ideas and share all the fun stuff going on around us that month. And we have the flexibility to write editorial content, too! It just has to be pre-approved by the Editor in Chief first. Interested? Shoot us your questions at hello@clubrambutan.com. We also post team openings regularly on our Instagram ( @club.rambutan ). Good luck!

“This is the most outside I’ve seen the bay be in a long ass time” - GP Pabros, Cohort 3 artist And indeed it was. For starters, Friday was Valentine’s Day. Restaurants and bars were crowded more than usual, and date nights and “ galentine ” celebrations kicked off the weekend for many people. It was also All-Star Weekend in the Bay Area. Athletes and other random celebrities were dropping in on the city to show face at afterparties. Basketball fans and party people were flooding the sidewalks to clubs everywhere north of SOMA. Oh, and did I mention the Chinese New Year parade was going on, too? Thousands of people are taking BART into the city to see basketball games in action or watch the floats drive down the streets of Chinatown. Even MUNI anticipated the chaos because it made its light rail and bus services free the entire weekend.  In one way or another, almost everybody was out and about Saturday night. But for 70 of us, it was a very special day for Club Rambutan - it was Launch Day for 03: The Identity Issue . February 15, 2025 would date an incredible milestone not only for the collective itself but the SF team specifically, as it would be the first time Club Rambutan would host TWO launch parties - on the same day - in two different cities, which also officially debuted our freshly-formed San Francisco branch that was put together in September 2024. All other launch parties before this were hosted in Phoenix, Arizona, where Club Rambutan’s founding team is based. I drove early to safariii CAMP’s Oakland warehouse to set up for the event. Ricky greeted me at the door and we began setting up for the big day to come.  “where’s maria?” “she’s stuck in traffic lol” It looked like it was up to us two to set up for the time being. At least we also had Amal and Adeeb from safariii CAMP to help us out. Ricky and I glanced between the floor plan and the venue space to move the furniture around. Couch over here. Tables over there. We were setting up as best as we could. You could hear my sigh of relief once I finished setting up the projector after looking at the manual a dozen times. Raim, Maria, and Sonia eventually beat the Bay Bridge traffic and the excitement is building. The team huddled around the merchandise table as we glanced at the newest issue of the magazine. It was the first time that most of us SF team members had seen it in person. Come to find out, Maria had to rush to her local USPS to pick up the magazines less than two hours before the event because she missed the initial delivery to her house the night before while she was out for Valentine’s Day. Crazy weekend, I know. Bound by metal spiral clips and variously shaped pages inside, I could already tell the magazine took a while to put together. Maria emphasized that 03 was structurally unique compared to its previous sister issues, and unlike Issue 1 (which was a staple-bound zine of 60-something sheets of printer paper) and Issue 2 (a perfect-bound, 120+ page coffee table-like book), Issue 3 was trimmed, hole-punched, and assembled completely by hand by the Phoenix team. Each copy also includes a FREE detachable 10x16 inch poster of Ashya Joselle’s (a featured Philadelphia-based artist from Cohort 3) exclusive project. As DJ Skolastik Bookfair started to spin and set the mood, guests began to trickle into the venue. Some took a seat on the couches and chatted amongst themselves, while others sat at the collage table and got to work finding snippets and cutouts to paste onto their creation. Some headed towards the back and treated themselves to some wine and complimentary snacks, such as beloved Filipino desserts like ube pastillas and hopia and raspberry and creme-flavored Kit Kat candies.  As the night went on, the collage table seemed to be a hit. The National Geographic magazines and colored pencils were spread across the table and everyone was focused on the task at hand. It was cool to see everyone and their different creations. Caricature artist Dahlia Margate was meticulously sketching and drawing paintings for guests. DJ 4DHILA started her set midway through the night, and her hype woman cheered her on by the turntable as she played some Bay Area classics that got the crowd real excited. At last, Maria, Raim, and Sonia introduced themselves to our guests and shared the hard work they put into making this event happen. That’s when it hit me: the last few months of work that we all had put into this magazine, the foundation of the newest San Francisco team, writing for our new newsletter, and networking throughout the Bay Area had led to this night. From September 2024 to this month, we got to work with incredible artists from around the world who made up Cohort 3, meet and spotlight other local Bay Area artists doing incredible work of their own, and come together to celebrate a night where we can continue to express ourselves whether through music, through collaging, through reading.  At least that’s what I thought about while grubbing on my al pastor quesadilla downstairs. NOTE FROM MARIA Were you unable to attend our Oakland launch? Or are you wondering if we’ll have any more events in the future? Fear not! Although both Club Rambutan teams always go on a month-long hiatus after the conclusion of each cohort and publication of its resulting issue, you can rest assured that launch parties are always regularly scheduled celebrations to look forward to. We are also starting to draft up plans for a much larger and formal creative event to bring to SF, too (hint: it rhymes with “passion glow”). All announcements are posted on our Instagram and newsletter , so be sure to give us a follow there as well! And last thing: be sure to read the long-form interviews for our Cohort 3 artists below. These were written by the Rambutan Roundup newsletter squad, which is Felix Dong, Maya Johnson, Percy Humphrey, and yours truly. And grab a copy of 03: The Identity Issue while you’re at it! Laura Mae Williams Ashya Joselle Gianpaolo Pabros Destiny Ann Montoya Emilia Nawrocki Marisa Musing Isabel Li

Where were you on February 15th? If it wasn’t at Gracie’s Tax Bar between the hours of 5 PM to 2 AM, then I don’t want to hear it. Why? Club Rambutan teamed up with Sessions PHX to bring an unforgettable night of love, laughter and labour (we set up at 3 PM) at every alternative person’s favorite bar, Gracie’s. And yes, we all had opps there.  Since it was the day after Valentine’s Day, we went hardcore with the hearts and flowers and the reds and pinks and spreading the love. When this team has a theme, they decorate crazy style, as seen below. Like, if I had to go into detail about what everyone did, this would be a Game of Thrones novel.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I have been to every single (phx) launch party for each magazine that Club Rambutan has released, and it has been an exponential growth arc. Granted, let me not talk too much since I just joined the team for Cohort 3, but it’s been such a ride watching from the sidelines and I never miss a chance to talk up Editor in Chief, Maria Manaog. This launch party for 03: The Identity Issue is particularly special because it was the first time Club Rambutan hosted TWO launch parties -on the same day - in two different cities, which also officially debuted the freshly-formed San Francisco branch that was established by Maria just last September. (yaaaas asu alum feature - maria) For Phoenix’s event, we had a lineup of four local Phoenix DJs to set the mood, a raffle full of new Club Rambutan merchandise and personalized wine bottles <3, table of additional CR merchandise for purchase, and a beautiful heart cutout polaroid photo booth made by Thrisha. To my detriment, and I suspect many others, Gracie’s also provided pink glittery jello shots for purchase. An anonymous source told me they spent $70 on jello shots that night… After our DJs finished up at 9 PM, Sessions had their DJs hop on and spin the rest of the night away. Wish I could tell you more details but I had two vodka sodas and a jello shot and I’ve never been known for my high tolerance for alcohol. Thank Rambutan there are other team members to provide their favorite parts of the night: DOM: “Getting groovy with it, giggling, taking pictures.” (wish she’d used another g word for alliteration purposes) FRANKIE (alleged $70 jello shot spender): “Getting to sit in the CR booth and talking to strangers about what we do + how cool it is.” DREW : “Working the booth and letting people know who we are and what we do. Also dancing and vibing!” Me (Maya) - Setting up the wine bottle bouquets, talking the ear off my fellow tabling volunteer (Jenna) and going, “Wow… this is so amazing…” every 10 minutes. Also a HUGE SHOUTOUT to Baseline Flowers (incredible local PHX flower shop #JAPAN!) , who provided the dried flowers for our beautiful wine bottle bouquets, Kid Sister for the wine bottles aforementioned, and the Art Resource Center for the supplies to create many of the structures you saw about Gracie’s. Much love and see y’all next time! Preorder 03: The Identity Issue here ! I can confirm it’s the most insane one yet. Additionally, Check out the Cohort 3 Artist long form interviews below. I had the privilege of interviewing Marisa and Isabel so at least check those ones out. Just kidding…maybe. Laura Mae Williams Ashya Joselle Gianpaolo Pabros Destiny Ann Montoya Emilia Nawrocki Marisa Musing Isabel Li

Last month, I meant to write an article about what to do when you get laid off or find yourself suddenly unemployed. This is because, and I’m sure you’ve guessed, I was laid off in January. Great news though, just one month and some change later, I am about to be employed again! I am SO excited to have health insurance, money, and a reason to post on Linkedin. When I got laid off, there were two other people in the room with me, my roommate and her friend visiting from Indiana. Normally, this would be an awkward situation, but I’m wired to love awkward situations so I immediately texted a group chat.  Getting laid off is odd because they say things like, “budget cuts,” “we’re so sorry to have to do this,” and you’re thinking to yourself, “Okay… let’s keep this moving…” and in my case, you end the call with, “Thanks! Or I guess, maybe not haha.”  Now for the important part - what DO you do after you get laid off? Email the appropriate people with any questions you can possibly think of. What happens to my 401K? When do I get my last paycheck and then my severance check? How long does my health insurance stay active? Who can I use as a reference when applying to new jobs? Do I get PTO + sick time payout? (In AZ, legally they don’t have to) CONFIRM in writing you are being laid off and NOT fired. You can also ask your now-former employer their reason behind you being laid off if you want that in writing, too. Text your work group chat if you have one and complain a little. Maybe Facetime. Apply for unemployment benefits ASAP. You can do that HERE. After you do this, you will need to file weekly claims here .  Apply for Medicaid if needed. Go out with your friends and enjoy the rest of the day. I personally went shopping with my roommates.  Being serious here, it would also be a good idea to sit down and evaluate your savings and your monthly living costs to see how much time you have to find a new job. I lived at home for a year after college, so I had a good chunk in savings, but I know many are not as fortunate to have that safety cushion. Make a spreadsheet, see how long you can make it work and hit up Linkedin.  Speaking of applying to jobs, I can provide some other sites besides Linkedin to check out if you are between jobs.  https://hiring.cafe/ Takes Indeed job postings and removes the potential scams and ghost listings. Says that it scrapes companies' listings that post on their own websites. https://remote.co/remote-jobs Pretty obvious, for remote jobs. https://simplify.jobs/ Only lists jobs directly from the company site. https://jobs.workable.com/ Job board provided by an ATS company, so you are only applying to jobs directly on the company's system. https://www.ordermycareer.com/400-job-boards/ Some guy on reddit put this together and constantly updates it for various industries. The goat fr.  And now for some Linkedin tips (you can trust me on this because I was in a business fraternity).  Look up keywords in search regarding your job field - many times you can find people who are involved in the hiring process posting direct links to the job.  If you see a job posting within 6 hours and you apply, even if it’s Easy Apply, your application will likely be seen. This does not apply to when the job is ‘reposted.’ This is actually how I got my new job… I EASY APPLIED within 2 hours of the job posting. Literally could not believe my eyes when I got a call back. Absurd. Connect with anyone you can find in the field you are aiming to be in. Even other people who are looking at the same jobs as you … because you can see when they comment underneath posts going, “Just applied, would love to connect and chat about this!” My bad if this is a little evil but game is game.  That’s all I got for now, but remember - rejection is redirection. Yes, that saying is overused and sounds stupid, but cliches are always there for a reason. And if you’re employed and reading this, IDGAF!!! THIS ISN’T FOR YOU!!

PERCY: How does your project relate to the theme of identity? LAURA MAE: This piece was initially inspired by the young swans that live in the canal by the restaurant I work at. What particularly inspired me were the flashes of white wings piercing through the young grey fluffy feathers. This sparked the idea of “changing feathers”, the transition of growing into an adult. My artwork is often personal so I wanted to explore this idea within my own life/experiences. This painting features myself and a selection of kitchen/homeware crockery that I own and have bought in an effort to build my future. Below are a few of Laura Mae’s early concept sketches for her contribution towards Issue 3. PERCY: What do you hope your audience will take away from this piece? LAURA MAE: I'm often quite introspective within my work, exploring my own identity and life experiences. I use myself as a reference and model, additionally taking informal photos of the objects around me to use within my artworks. I can only hope that displaying my own experiences will allow my artwork to personally connect with my audience, whether they can relate or not.  PERCY: You’ve mentioned your interest in how objects and personal possessions can shape our identities. What are your earliest memories with objects that have had a lasting impact on your sense of self? LAURA MAE : Before I was born - or when I was very young - my dad collected a small amount of Beanie Babies. I remember finding his box of them and I think the idea of collecting things, especially plush toys, stuck with me. Only recently has it manifested within myself where I collect Jellycat plushies. It brings me happiness to also be connected with my father in that way. He had some American and German themed bears which reflect both my nationalities, and I just loved that he chose bears which were not just random but ones that had personal meaning. Similarly, when I was born my mom had a Pikachu plush with her in the hospital. It only makes sense seeing as it was quite popular in the early 2000s and it only grew to be more popular. I used to collect the cards while I was in primary school and I remember begging to be taken to the shops to get more trading card packs. I then got into the video game, which probably is what got me into gaming in the first place. This nostalgia feeds into my interests today as I still have that first Pikachu plush along with 4 other newer Pokémon plushies.  I find it hard to explain, but as an adult I have found connecting to my younger self and indulging in the things I have loved my whole life as comforting and healing. You could say that being a Pokémon fan or a plush toy collector as part of my identity is as materialistic it might seem. These possessions and media have deep routes within my childhood and my relationships with loved ones. PERCY: Neurodivergence has played a key role in your relationship with objects, and you’ve mentioned that your obsession with collections is something you’d like to explore further. How do you think this perspective on objects and collections deepens the theme of identity in your art? LAURA MAE: Building off my last answer, I feel strongly that the things we collect/buy/accumulate throughout our lives can often be representations of memories or events that are important to us. I think that we also gravitate towards things that “speak to us”, things that are relatable and that we subconsciously choose to represent us. I started thinking about this idea more after my father passed away in 2021 and my mom and I were left with a collection of his possessions. For a while as we grieved we kept his “man cave” intact in memory of him. We got out more photos and things that were his or reminded us of him and displayed them in that room. It served as an important way for us to remember him, the man he was to us, through his possessions. This is what informed “what remains”, a painting I made previously, which was a really important exploration of identity, material culture and grief for me. The work I am making now also encapsulates the person I am at this moment in time. PERCY: What excites you the most about contributing to a project that prioritizes intersectional art and community? Do you find your own work influenced or expanded by the other artists in this cohort? LAURA MAE: Community is so important and it's been so wonderful to meet and work with so many more artists, especially since there's a variety of countries and cultures represented. I am so excited to see how we all tackle the theme differently. It's also exciting and important that Club Rambutan is so dedicated to the uplifting and showcasing of voices who aren’t often heard. It's been amazing to talk with artists from this cohort and ones within the Club Rambutan team. You can see Laura Mae’s full final project by purchasing 03: The Identity Issue .

PERCY: Tell me more about the piece you’ve created for this cohort and how it reflects the theme of identity . EMILIA : The piece I’ve created for this cohort is an oil painting of a pixelated portrait of myself with scattered colorful puzzle pieces, some highlighting different colors and some focusing on different areas of my face. While creating this piece, I was thinking about identity as a whole and how all of my work is about my identity, which I have a complicated relationship with. I thought of the puzzle pieces as different aspects of my personality and how it forms an overall intersectional identity - woman, first-generation American, queer, etc. while the pixelation also acts as a way to hide or abstract myself. PERCY: Your work draws deeply from personal experiences, mythology, and themes of evolution. How do these influences come together in your art, and what drives you to focus on these subjects? EMILIA : I focus on the themes in my work as a way to recreate stories and the morals within them in a feminist lens and as a way to work through religious trauma. All of these influences come together in my work naturally as they are part of what shape my identity and allow me to create my version of storytelling, one that I have autonomy in. PERCY: Pixelation and repetition is a unique feature of your style. What inspired you to incorporate it into your practice, and how does it connect to the larger messages in your work? EMILIA : In some of my older work when I first started painting, I focused on small, repetitive brush strokes going in the same direction and eventually decided to do some fully pixelated little paintings to see how far I could push the abstraction of an image before it is no longer recognizable. I found it interesting to observe how quickly the brain can interpret the pixelation as a whole image, and viewing pixelated paintings from up close, where they are just boxes of colors side by side, versus far away, where you see the image in its entirety. When I think about why I’m drawn to pixelation, I also can’t help but think back to when I was younger, sitting so close to the TV in the living room where I could see the small pixels that made up my favorite cartoons and shows. I enjoy using pixelation in oil painting as it feels like digitizing this ancient medium and paying homage to my childhood of being on the internet too much. PERCY: You’ve embraced a collage-like process, both physical and digital, in creating your pieces. What does this method bring to your exploration of identity and storytelling? EMILIA: When I start to create new pieces, the collaging process is another form of introspection for myself. I get to sit down with unlimited materials (whether it be my folders upon folders of cut-out magazine pages or the multiple tabs of free-use imagery on my computer) and figure out what sticks out to me and why. Sometimes creating the collage idea for the piece is like putting together a puzzle, where I have a bunch of pieces that could fit and my task is to narrow it down to what I believe translates the story the best.  PERCY: As someone who has created work inspired by religious trauma and feminist reinterpretations of myths, how do you see your art contributing to broader conversations about gender and identity? EMILIA: I believe being a queer woman, the experiences and beliefs I have are not uncommon amongst other women and other queer people, which allows others to be seen and have space to have conversations about things like misogyny in organized religion, the erasure of queer artists, etc.  Below are some captures of Emilia’s previous works that demonstrate their portrait and pixelation art style. PERCY: Community seems to play a large role in your art journey, from organizing DIY exhibitions to working in a shared studio space. How has collaboration and being part of a collective influenced your perspective and process? EMILIA : Collaboration and being around other artists always influences my perspective and process. I love the shared environment of a studio with other artists, especially of different mediums. Having a shared studio allows me to interact with others in my community and think about how we can share skills, inspire each other, bounce ideas to and from, and simply rant about how we hate not being able to be in the studio all the time. I think my process does involve a lot of vulnerability and being alone, which makes the moments where friends and artists alike come together that much more important, in hearing their thoughts and ideas. PERCY: What do you hope audiences take away from your work, especially when it comes to the intersection of humor, irony, and the serious themes you explore? EMILIA : I hope that audiences can relate to the notion of creating your own story and having a voice as a marginalized person – and that you can be sarcastic and angry about it in the process.  PERCY: Are there any forms of music that guide or inspire you in your creative process, either for this current piece or past ones? EMILIA : Music and literature inspire my process and pieces so much! I don’t work without listening to something, recently I’ve been delving more into audiobooks as well. Music-wise, I find the work of Julien Baker, Lingua Ignota, and Ethel Cain to be very inspirational – all use religious imagery in their work. Recent audiobooks I’ve enjoyed while creating have been: Down the Drain by Julia Fox, Who’s Afraid of Gender? By Judith Butler and The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi.  You can see Emilia’s full final project by purchasing 03: The Identity Issue .

FELIX: Tell me about the photo series you’ve created for this issue. GP: My series, Pillars, showcases my love and care for all the people in my life, including my family and friends. I was finding my artistic identity on my most recent trip to Japan, and I found an art book titled The Annihilation of Space and Time by @zerofeedback about how to reconstruct yourself from the ground up and understand why you make art. I boiled myself down to how much I love my community and how much I thrive on connecting with people.  My photo series is inspired by David Hockney, who joins all of these images together. Basically, if you were to take one frame of the image and have it framed in one tight area, but then have a collage of the entire space. It's still one picture but constructed very differently, and I thought that was sick.  FELIX: What inspires you to capture a shot or moment through your camera? GP: I've heard from some people in digital media, specifically photo and video, that our medium has a different artistic weight than a painting or an art piece molded by hand because it's a digital artifact. It’s something that's created in a very modern age. I feel very strongly about photography as the modern way of immortalizing something.  It could be one of the most important moments in someone's life when a baby is born and you're capturing the reaction of the father. Being able to look back at a moment and be like, Okay, this is what I was thinking at that time. This is what I was reflecting on. This moment will never leave me because I took this photo/video. FELIX: What is one takeaway you hope people will get from your photo series? GP: I hope that people more appreciative of their surroundings and reflect on people's impact on you, regardless of how much time they spend with you. Whether it's your parents who you've been with your whole life, or a recent friend that you made within the past half year.  I think the level of closeness that you have with someone isn't mutually exclusive to the time they've been in proximity with you. I also really hope that people understand that it's okay to be very human and community-oriented and to rely on people. Even though trust can be tampered with and you may have been betrayed, taking on that risk is the most human experience that you could ever endure.  There has to be a balance, you know, when it comes to relying on people and also relying on yourself. It’s being able to be vulnerable, but also having the strength to to keep it there, you know, to not be hurt by anything that comes your way, to not be hurt by anyone attacking that vulnerability.  Below are some captures from GP’s final project. FELIX: If you could relive any day of your life, what day, which day would you choose? GP : Oh, like, from start to finish, kind of ordeal? FELIX: Yes, we'll do start to finish.  GP : And this is the entire span of my life? FELIX: Yeah, we'll do the entire span of your life.  GP: I'm bombarded with choices. This might be a little bit of recency bias, but I would like to relive the day that I hosted my art gallery back in June of this year. I went through the day entirely in work mode, and I was just hoping everything was going well as head coordinator of the entire space. I was expecting a maximum of 100 people, and 170 people showed up that day, and it was insane. I tried to keep my head low and didn't appreciate everything as much as I wanted to in real-time. Obviously, I got to reflect on everything afterward and think about the impact that I made that day. I couldn't accept any congratulations at that moment, because I kept thinking the job was not finished. I'm thinking specifically about that clip of Kobe Bryant when he was doing his post-game conference, and he's like, “What's there to be happy about? The job’s not done.”  I’m so proud of everyone who helped me coordinate, everyone on my team, from those in charge of sound to the live performances to the vendors–it was just a beautiful day. That was all about community. That day also really helped me boil down my artistic identity. FELIX: Is there anything else you'd like to share about yourself and your photo series? GP: The location of this project is really important. It's going to be photographed in my grandmother's home, where, basically, she raised two generations of children and is also the last grandparent that I still have with me physically. I wanted to shoot in that location in particular because it was a place that I couldn't appreciate enough in my time as a child. Now that I'm older, I wanted this project to be in a place where I had so much love and care placed on me. You can see GP’s full final project by purchasing 03: The Identity Issue .

FELIX: Can you tell me a little bit about the artwork that is being featured? ASHYA: It’s an interview-based project that will be integrated into sculpture. I put out a call for Filipino-American participants to share photos and stories about their family’s migration history , including personal relationships to language and religion, migrant working conditions, family dynamics, significant milestones in life, etc. This project is meant to showcase the unity of our experiences and struggles within the Filipino diaspora.  Some work-in-progress pics that Ashya sent us of their project a few months ago. FELIX: My next question is, how has your identity and upbringing influenced your artwork? ASHYA : Art has always been a very personal and vulnerable thing for me. Since I was 5 and to this day, I have drawn and painted in my room in the dark very often, you know? I thought that was just my idea of fun - I mean, it was - but as I've grown older, I realized that it was a coping mechanism for having to solve problems on my own as a child and grandchild to Filipino immigrants.  Within the Fil-Am community, there is a pressure to assimilate with Americans and hide our culture, so I was never able to fully understand why my family refused to teach us our languages, why we were expected to overwork in our career to send money overseas, or why my tito needed to get married as soon as possible to stay in the US - It was just something that had to be done. Overall, there was a heavy feeling of shame around our heritage and a lack of answers as to why my family left the Philippines. With this realization, I’ve since used my art to work through these feelings and educate myself and others.  FELIX: As both an artist and an organizer, how do you think your art plays a role in sparking conversations and building community? What do you hope people will take away from your art? ASHYA: I’ve only been organizing for two years so far and one of the things I’ve been questioning myself on, is how to utilize my natural inclinations as an artist towards deepening the Fil-Am community’s collective understanding of the economic and political conditions overseas. This project is intended to explore that through our conditioning to internalize that we are still a part of Filipino history; Our entire existence is innately political. We are necessary to create change for the interest of the people by empowering each other to break the cycle of the colonial mindset and fight for a true, free Philippines.  It’s all interconnected. Our existence is intertwined with politics and everything that is around us too. FELIX: You mentioned how automatism is prioritized, and your art process goes with the flow. Could you describe the process of creating art? And are there any moments of artist's block? ASHYA: Intuitively, I have always created art in a meditative state, allowing my subconscious to do the work for me. Music, moods, and reflections determine the direction and tone of the artwork over time. For example, some of the work I enjoy creating is in collaboration with musicians - I would listen to their music on repeat, creating shapes and textures based on how I'm feeling when I hear certain sounds, progressions, rhythms, etc. As a result, the artwork embodies the essence of who the musicians are as people. The only problem with this process is that I get bored pretty fast. It can be difficult for long-term projects because the excitement of an idea calms about halfway through a piece and I’ll always want to move on to the next shiny blank canvas. It’s something I’ve been rectifying, especially with this project - It’s the first time I’ve been so intentional with the planning before even touching the artwork.  With this project specifically, I've kind of changed in that way where I'm putting a lot of intention into this project before I even start touching the artwork, which is something that I've never even dreamed I would do, but it'll be interesting to see how my process will change, or how it will get integrated into each other. FELIX: Your art process tends to be very in the moment. How do you think this kind of project challenged you in terms of planning and structure? ASHYA: I was raised with a very individualistic approach to art; It was something that I’ve always done alone and for myself. So, this project challenged me to be more open and vulnerable with my community. I had to talk through my self-doubt, trust my intuition, and prioritize communication for this all to work out. If I felt stuck somewhere during the process, I had to remind myself that it was okay to ask questions and lean on others for help - Especially when it came to scheduling, interviews, collecting photos, etc. FELIX: If you could time travel into the future, what would you want to see in the world? ASHYA : Living under a capitalist and imperialist system, it's encouraged that we fend for ourselves, shut each other off, and overwork with the desire to “get out of the rat race”. Our money is being used to fund genocide and militarization in the global south, while basic human needs aren’t able to be met without an increasing price tag attached. I would love to see a future where people can spend more time experiencing rest, joy, and community. I would love to see a system in place that is for the people, by the people.  You can see Ashya’s full final project by purchasing 03: The Identity Issue .

MARIA: What’s the story behind your relationship with collaging? Did you start the classic way with magazine cutouts? Or did you begin completely online? DESTINY: Yeah, I actually did start with traditional scissors and magazines! I would go to Bookman's and buy every single National Geographic I could because they were like a dollar. When I was early into making collages, I was going through the grief of losing my mom. I didn't have a lot of outlets or familial connections where I could vocalize what I was going through. I actually started trying to create memories from when I was 15 and younger since my whole memory during that time was blank because of how much I went through.  I use deal with these emotions <...> in a very healing way. Like memory associations. I was a Tumblr girl all throughout my teenage years, too. I noticed this weird attraction that I had to specific, niche types of stylized photos. And so I was like, well, what if I just switched to using these photos? What kind of themes will come out if I use photos?  MARIA: This photomontage you made is derived from another one of your works called Tiny’s. It includes up to 100 mini collages from Tiny’s to visualize “the atmosphere of you”. Tell me more about it, and why you decided to integrate it into this project. DESTINY: Tiny’s started last fall. It’s a play on my name. But it’s funny ‘cause they're not that tiny. This image is almost four by six inches. But when I compress them digitally, I can adjust their sizes easily. It was when I was beginning to feel dissatisfied with the full landscape collages . I was feeling lost and it was too much for each piece. I really got into three-object pairings because I found that, for me, these visual signifiers meant so much more in their compactness than it did as a whole expansive landscape. I would say that the transition from using images from National Geographic to found images from the internet was really important in fully actualizing what this project was going to be. It’s also very important that the photos are printed and I’m able to play with composition. My goal is to eventually make a book of all the tiny collages. MARIA: What do you want people to understand about you through this project? DESTINY: I want people to understand object associations as social signifiers, to address a certain group, or that this is what I'm into. My practice now is more so in tune with personality and persona. I want people to question why I'm using certain objects in relation to one another here.  MARIA: Are you welcoming viewers to make assumptions about you through this piece? Or do you want them to think more vastly, as in what these collages may represent generally in the world?  DESTINY: Projections of self is what I'm interested in conveying. I relate a lot to this artist, Arnaldo Roche Rabell. He'll take canvas and have his family members stand under it in the nude, the shape of their bodies directly imprinting onto the canvas. Through this process, he's recalling the idea of screen memories . That's the term I relate my process to. It is a term coined by Sigmund Freud which loosely describes distorted memories of childhood experiences that repress or mask traumatic experiences that actually occurred. I spent so much of the beginning of my life just in survival mode, where now that I'm in my 20s, I'm safe. I can reflect now, and upon those reflections, I realized I have no idea who I am. I had just been surviving up until this point. My practice lets me bring things I loved back , to curate my own idea of what I think reality is.  MARIA: You recently graduated with a B.A. in Museum Studies from Arizona State University. What would you say is your favorite part of the curation experience when working on an exhibit? What’s the most challenging? DESTINY: As a curator, you take this position of neutrality because you are facilitating this other person's artwork. It's necessary in this position to listen and unlearn. Unlearn everything I thought was hierarchical in our society, mostly from Western perspectives. I recognize how much of my high school education was shaped from colonial perspectives. My favorite part of this job is being introduced to new perspectives, having my mindset challenged in the healthiest ways possible. The hardest part of this job is dealing with institutional factors. So much of my senior year was unveiling how bad institutions are. They are the “enemy” in a way, because they are the perpetrators of colonialism. Many are funded by plantation money and upheld by white Eurocentric perspectives.  As an indigenous curator, that's my biggest challenge: learning how to deal with all this frustration and anger that comes with working in this field, but also not wanting to leave. One, because I recognize my voice is valid and that I deserve to be here. And two, understanding the practicalities of what it means to actually enact change.  Not through anger or impulsive reactions, but rather through thoughtful and strategic ways. That's where I struggle the most because it can be really hard to keep your calm after learning about all of the pain that institutions have caused and continue to do. MARIA: What is one thing you wish people knew more about museums and how they operate? DESTINY: I wish people were more aware of the amount of work that goes into exhibitions - not just the workload, but the amount of people who participate in it. This is partly to blame on the institution, because many times when exhibitions are announced, you read that little tiny label on the wall, and it only really mentions the curator. So I'm trying to break it down - for myself and for others - what does curatorial authority mean? Through my internship, I realized that it's a team of eight to ten people who actually help with marketing, layout design, things like that. We have graphic designers, interpreters, and researchers on top of the curator, who is presented as the sole face of the exhibition. I wish that museums did more in making sure that all these people's work was recognized. So yeah, invisible labor, let's talk about it.  You can see Destiny’s full final project by purchasing 03: The Identity Issue .