iam.balida

I am Angelica Marie L. Balida, a 22 year old artist and Fine Arts graduate from the Philippines. I grew up in a family without much exposure or experience with art, so I was actually introduced to art through crayons and drawing by our domestic helper. From there I was drawing every day, just copyin...

I am Angelica Marie L. Balida, a 22 year old artist and Fine Arts graduate from the Philippines. I grew up in a family without much exposure or experience with art, so I was actually introduced to art through crayons and drawing by our domestic helper. From there I was drawing every day, just copying whatever I see in books and photographs. But my current love for art is not something that has remained constant since then, unlike how it might have been for others. For a time I found new loves like chess, and my passion and skills in art fell by the wayside. When opportunities in chess were denied to me, I tried returning to art but I no longer had the experience nor the confidence.

However, when I applied for university, art was the one that returned to me. The degree in Fine Arts called to me among all the choices, even when I did not fully understand what it would entail. So in the beginning it was difficult, trying to regain my grasp on all these things that I had left behind, yet slowly but surely my passion for art was returning. Even with a lack of support given this field that I entered, even with abuse and all that I had to go through, even with things the way they are in my country and around the world, the desire to create art remained. If anything it has only gotten stronger, as I try to process and manifest everything that has happened to me and is happening around me.

As I try to find my style and my place in the unforgiving art world, I take it day by day and remind myself that art is not just about skill or beauty, that art is something unto itself and it needs no justification.