Ang Manghahabul

Here Delilah weaves a sleeping Samson’s hair into her hablon textile as her two tribesmen encourage her from behind. I often use episodes from Samson’s tumultuous life in Judges as a metaphor to inform my portrayals of the difficult history of the Philippines and, by extension, my own. 

Someone said, maybe it was Robert Frost, that, paraphrasing, one’s purpose in life is to return full circle to one’s childhood and understand it for the first time. For the last ten years I have been involved in this process. It has been exceedingly rewarding but also quite difficult to reclaim a childhood that I left in the Philippines at three years old taking with me only sensory memories. Yet I have a large and supportive family on a small island called Negros who help guide and support my search to understand that little boy who, thirty years later, finally recognized the love of Christ in a foreign land. 

Now I see that God had a plan from the beginning. That plan was beautifully complex, circuitous, at times painful but masterfully designed. Looking back on it after thirty some years creating art with the gifts that He has given me, I feel very grateful.