The Balikbayan Artist

(Paperback)

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Exploring the role of the artist in troubled times, The Balikbayan Artist follows Vance Igorta who returns to the Philippines as a 'balikbayan' after nearly fifty years in the United States. He is a member of the Manong generation, the largest diaspora of Filipinos who worked physically demanding jobs, mostly in California's agricultural fields. After coming home to a country on the brink of becoming a dictatorship, the farm-laborer-turned-artist shifts his paintings from abstractions to didactic political art to better reflect the rebellion that he eventually joins. Didacticism also facilitates his meditations on the impact of leaving his birthland to become a powerless Manong and then impoverished artist of color in New York. The Balikbayan Artist takes readers from the early 20th century to the present day where Vance Igorta's art is being discovered anew. His legacy is validated for allowing his art to address the tensions of his time instead of keeping it solely entrenched within aesthetic concerns. The artist's choice reflects what Vance Igorta learned as a voraciously self-educated person- that in circumstances where power corrupts, what makes anyone and everyone dangerous is love. This novel is inspired by and dedicated to Venancio C. Igarta (1912-2000), the real-life leading artist of the Manong generation.

Author Bio

Eileen R. Tabios has released over 70 collections of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and experimental writings from publishers around the world. Translated into 13 languages, she also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies which has involved hundreds of other poets and writers. Recent releases include an autobiography, THE INVENTOR; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an art monograph, Drawing the Six Directions; a flash fiction collection (in collaboration with harry k stammer), Getting To One; a novel DoveLion- A Fairy Tale for Our Times (with a Filipino translation, KalapatingLeon, by Danton Remoto); two French books, PRISES (Double Take) (trans. Fanny Garin) and La Vie erotique de l'art (trans. Samuel Rochery); and a Spanish edition, Uno, dos, tres- Selecci n de Hay(na)kus (One, Two, Three- Selected Hay(na)ku Poems) (trans. Rebeka Lembo). Her body of work further includes a first poetry book, Beyond Life Sentences, which received the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, as well as invention of the hay(na)ku, a 21st century diasporic poetic form; the MDR Poetry Generator that can create poems totaling theoretical infinity; the "Flooid" poetry form that's rooted in a good deed; and the monobon poetry form based on the monostich. Her writing and editing works have received recognition through awards, grants and residencies. More information is at http-//eileenrtabios.com