Never have I found a symbol so compelling as the ifugao symbol of woman. I was first attracted to ifugao art, weaving and crafts when I was eight years old on vacation in the northern Philippines, traveling from my family’s rice farm in Pangasinan. I also find the tattoos and designs from the Ifugao region compelling and inspiring.The symbol is simple yet very complex. It represents feminine, woman, womb, fertility. It speaks of the cycles of a woman, the seasons of a woman from girlhood, puberty, womanhood, pregnancy, birth and menopause. The womb also symbolizes home.

A simple, simple symbol that speaks volumes. Multiple layers of the complexity of being a woman. The vagina and womb, the center of body, involving pleasure, pain, blood, medical crisis, Miracle of Birth,

In creating art with this symbol, I take control, not a government, a religion or male-dominated societies.

I often paint and draw what I find compelling and then create the images in sculptures. I currently have a sculpture in process.

This symbol speaks to me again and again. I find it very meditative to work with seemingly endless variations, colors, shapes and compositions.