EARLIER this year Mona Alcudia was hailed as one of the “Top 10 Talented Cebuano Artists and Illustrators to Follow on Instagram” by online group Hanging Rice—one of the 23-year-old’s accolades to date.
Rightly so, as it shares a fascinating narrative on her life as an artist, whether it’s a preview on her works in visuals, crafts or furniture, or oftentimes just shots of her daily adventures, like a visit to an artsy café or her odd finds hidden in her workplace’s drawers.
This constant exposure to different environments and situations, Mona said, are essentially what fuels her creativity. She said she has a knack for observing everything around her, and translating whatever insights she has onto her work.
Formerly a designer for Hive under the direction of Kenneth Cobonpue, Mona is back in her alma mater, UP Cebu, as instructor in product design. On the side she is an active member of art and culture groups Streetkonect, The Lemon Collective and Pusod.
“I’ve always been interested in the arts ever since I saw my dad make a doodle of me as a kid,” she said. One of her earliest recollections of it was when she received a book on how to draw animals. “It amazed me how I could arrange different circles and connect them with lines to form a monkey. When I learned that, I offered to draw monkeys for all my classmates in kindergarten.”
From then on Mona joined art workshops and competitions, became part of her school’s publication as artist, and graduated with the Best in Visual Arts award in high school. One of her most recent recognitions was winning first place in Bijoux Cebu, a jewelry design competition, in 2010.
From jewelry to other media, Mona enjoys dabbling in all kinds. “I’m really into material research and development, so I get a thrill from working with all sorts of possibilities in any given material. Right now I’m very interested in paper-crafting and watercolor.”
“I tend to create artworks or designs that are very feminine, with curves and suggestive lines. My subject matter is really ambiguous and has a mysterious feel to it,” she described. For her creative process, she believes that taste is something that can be developed from exploration. “Always suspend judgment during the process and at the end, ask yourself how the outcome makes you feel—that gut instinct that tells you whether something is beautiful or not is always something you should listen to.”
Mona said she looks up to the dreaminess etched in James Jean’s paintings, a kind of otherworldliness which she also wants to achieve for her own aesthetics. Then in terms of subject mater, she said that Jeanette Winterson’s metaphorical approach in writing has somehow influenced her way of doing her art.
Starting last year, Mona also played a role in boosting exposure for the up-and-coming contemporary artists community in Cebu. Among the activities she helped in organizing were The Little Secrets, a series of exhibits that featured budding artists, and the Soak Music and Arts Festival, which was loosely inspired by the Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival in Puerto Galera that she participated in. “The creative vibe out there was so infectious that it seemed like a wonderful thing to share to Cebu,” she said.
Monda handled creative direction for Soak, in which they gathered artists to put up art installations and to paint bancas that were later donated to fishermen in Bantayan who had been victims of Typhoon Haiyan.
“Right now, we’re organizing the second annual Eerie Ball at the The Chillage for Halloween,” she said, “which will be a black light party filled with neon-colored art installations throughout the area. There’s also Strange Beasts, an artisan toy show, on Oct. 25. It’s the first of its kind in Cebu and will feature local artists’ handmade toys patterned after monster folklore.”