(2020)

Tarot Card Design Concept

I always struggled with my identity growing up as a first generation Filipino American because I was not taught my mother tongue, nor was I ever the stereotypical blonde-haired and freckled American girl the cartoons I watched and dolls I played with would idolize. As I grew up. I also came to realize that the way I understood and felt attraction was not the way my family necessarily outright advocated. This state of unending displacement in all aspects of my life festered for a long time, and my acceptance of those parts of me only came after much self research through queer communities online.

Patnubay stems from a lifelong struggle with two intersecting identities that felt like they would never cross paths: Filipino heritage and queerness. The space between them, caused by colonialist silencing efforts and loss of native culture due to immmigration, is closed by bringing queer narratives of indigenous Filipino mythology back into a modern contexts to be shared among future generations.