Artist's Statement, Jan. 2006
Carlos Villa

As I look at the modular structure in my work- I like (it) that each unit (in the grid arrangement) is different.

For instance- when I buy small stretched canvases (all the same size) then lay them out into a tight grid- sometimes they do not fit tightly together.

Each unit is unique.

In my early work (using the grid), I observed 16 modular framed wooden panels on the wall forming a rectangle: this network (for me) became a “community of interdependent units”. “In each “community”, there was an interplay of drawn marker lines and those lines made from the actual separation of the boxes next to each other. The irregularities (in the irregular thinness and thickness of the lines) are caused from the hanging of the work. Protrusions or gaps occur from the waviness or unevenness of the wall on which these units are attached - much like cracks on the sidewalk.

The drywall (on which the piece is mounted) breathes from day-to-day. When the studio is cold or warm, the hanging piece is affected. Protrusions or gaps appear, not unlike towns and cities shifting under natural conditions. Mounted, represents - in its own.

These lines and cracks maintain their own integrity as spaces to themselves besides delineating and marking the space that separate one space from another--ie: the delineation (or time) between dates in a calendar.

I think of time between events.
I think of space between dates
I think of space between people
I think of silence being broken up by sound intervals
I think of the uniqueness of spaces – between – that mark spaces.

The spaces in my work are (by themselves) trance / zone / sites…..while the spaces / lines that form the grid are (in themselves) “sites of action”.

The point of “recognition” as the space between “confronting” and “understanding.”

On many of my pieces, there is a drawn grid on my assembled (as a grid) canvases or panels. There is a distance or margin that exists from those drawn lines to the physical edges of those panels. That margin is meaningful and open to perception.

The integrity of those spaces is a core of my aesthetics.

My art work is a result and process of what I experience in life or as a full time artist/instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute and teaching Filipino American Art History (part-time) at the University of San Francisco, organizing multicultural symposia or reacting to the media or art media blitz. From this, I expunge powerful matter to a meaningful core and believe that these findings are a precious commodity and that those painted contents become subjects inside of cabinets that open and close like books – the work in the cabinets open a reasoning of space and implication.

As they stay locked or unlocked- Times can end or a Time can begin-

The placement of this work, whether on the floor or mounted on the wall--half or fully opened--or locked in a corner can be part of the reading of the piece.  (i.e.) What kind of wood is used--its history--its color or its grain density are also “aspects of meaning.”

I have a poor memory and cannot effectively retell stories. I am interested in the visual effect and the “after-effect” of such exchanges.

My work as an artist can be tracked as having done “what not to do.”

As an artist I have been exhibiting my work since 1958.

My work matured in 1969.

I have exhibited work made from oil + acrylic paints, aluminum, steel, bronze, wood, feathers, blood, mirrors, fibre, and found objects. As a cultural worker + organizer my actions have been applied directly to community(s). Those ideas have been contextualized and documented as symposia, teaching, collaboration, performances, installations, and arts-administration actions.

This work has contributed to mainstream art world dialogues, Filipino American Art History, art + artists of color, Asian American Art, and actions affirming my Filipino American heritage.

In 1957, my first art lesson was with Leo Valledor, who encouraged the study of late Matisse etchings.

In retrospect, art making allowed me a way to experience life; and to ask and construct crucial questions along the way.

The lessons learned through my studies with H. Matisse late etchings have (in one way or another) informed the constructing - deconstructing + reconstructing of my creative mindset: to always strive for the “essence.”