I am a second generation Filipino-American, and my mixed-media poster project "KAIN TAYO!" is a celebration of the Filipino culinary culture and my experiences with it. "Kain tayo" means "Let's eat" in Tagalog, and it's a phrase heard often at Filipino households and celebrations as a family member or friend insists others to eat.
Any Filipino knows that one of the quintessential elements of a Filipino celebration are the rows of chafing dishes filled with noodles, stews, rice, meat, and other Filipino party food essentials. Thus, upon starting this series I knew I had to create a piece that depicts the familiar scene of family and friends lining up to fill their plates with a variety of foods.
As for how I came across the reference picture, one of my 'titas', or aunts, is notorious for taking too many pictures of food and parties. After an unsuccessful search through websites such as Google for images of a Filipino party, I remembered that my tita posts thousands of such photos on Facebook. So, I scrolled through years of images to find the perfect reference. Thank you Tita Mayette for always being a great photographer!
This poster is fully digital and was created using the Procreate app on iPad.
One of the more well-known traditions of the Philippines is the "boodle fight," which involves eating food with hands, directly off of the table. Typically strewn and piled on top of banana leaves, the food typically features rice, seafood, barbecue - and of course a few handfuls of fresh fruit and vegetables to balance out the heavy oil and tangy vinegar.
For me, this was the most fun poster to make, mainly because it felt nostalgic for me. Whenever a school project involved making a poster or trifold, I would meticulously cut shapes out of construction paper - sometimes I would even create stencils of fancy fonts I found online and cut those out, using a regular pair of scissors.
This poster was made with acrylic paint on construction paper, and the text was added using Adobe Illustrator.
Amongst Asian-Americans, first-generation parents are notorious for not expressing "I love you" in the most direct way. Instead, one of the ways that they're known to show love is through acts of service - a common one being the serving of cut fruit to a child. Even for me, when I moved out of my parents' house to live independently, I found myself not eating fruit. I was simply too used to my parents offering me bowls of cut apples, cantaloupe, and mangoes.
When designing the poster, I knew I wanted it to be simple in comparison to my other posters, with just the hands, fruit, and plate the subjects. But for my first iteration, as shown, I believed I made it a bit too simple - there wasn't any texture or much character. I've never designed a full poster in Illustrator, so after some finagling and many iterations, I settled for a softer font and textures.
This poster is fully digital and was created using Adobe Illustrator.
"Inuman" is a word in Tagalog referring to a planned drinking session, and along with the expected beer and liquor, it typically involves "pulutan," food that is eaten while drinking. From my experience, it's a casual affair filled with stories and laughter.
The reference photo is from my trip to the Philippines in 2018. The last time we had been there as a family was back in 2010, so we definitely had a lot of stories to catch up on!
This poster was made using watercolor, ink, and colored pencil on paper, and the text was added using Adobe Illustrator.
"Kamayan" refers to the occasion when one eats with their hand, a popular way to eat in the Philippines (when not eating with a spoon and a fork). I remember how when I was growing up, I would always ask my mom how she made her homemade food so good. She always replied, "One, because it was made with love. And two - well, because we're eating it with our hands."
When finding references that captured the essence of "kamayan," I couldn't decide on whether to focus on the act of picking up the food or the act of bringing the food towards the mouth. I decided to focus on both, and made two oil paintings that would give the feeling of movement without necessarily being animated.
This poster was made using oil on canvas, and the layout and text were added using Adobe Illustrator.
As with most countries, a large part of Philippines cuisine involves street food. These street food carts and stalls can typically be found full of skewer meats, as well as fried and barbecued things. Some popular street foods include barbecued pork or chicken, bananacue, fried fish, kwek-kwek (fried quail eggs), betamax (coagulated chicken blood), isaw (intestines), and adidas (chicken feet).
Originally, I was supposed to have "Kamayan" be the poster to feature clay pieces, but gave up after I found the hand would keep cracking due to the delicate nature of air dry clay. So, I reasoned that skewered food should be relatively easy to sculpt. The sculptures did end up cracking in the end, but not before I managed to paint and photograph them.
This poster was made using air dry clay and acrylic, and the text was added using Adobe Illustrator.
Looking forward to hearing from you.