Tigmamanukan

2023

Color pencil on paper

18” x 24” Inches

With the current rhetoric circulating about the rights of transgender people, I use the soothing balm of art to help find hope and joy within myself. The Tigmamanukan is a legendary bird of Tagalog mythology that was sent down by a deity to crack open a bamboo shoot, from which the first man and woman emerged. The Asian Fairy Bluebirds are believed to be this bird. Here I depict embracing myself in love, as I stand inside the split bamboo shoot. The bird flying by to the right, believed to be a omen of a journey one should proceed.