This blog post is authored by Niki G. a member of the Biblio Lotus Team and librarian at Martha Cooper Library.
Biblio Lotus supports and values the culture and voice of our Asian communities in Pima County by providing resources and programs and by establishing ongoing partnerships with Asian organizations.
October is Filipino American History Month, which is the time to celebrate the history and contributions made by our Filipino American community. Filipino Americans are the second-largest Asian American group in the nation and the third-largest ethnic group in California, after Latinas/os and African Americans. The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on October 18, 1587, when “Luzones Indios” came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed at what is now Morro Bay, California. In 2009, U.S. Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States and various states, counties, and cities in the U.S. have established proclamations and resolutions declaring observance of Filipino American History Month.
Today we are spotlighting Filipina American artist and illustrator Milani Hunt, who resides in Tucson. As a celebration of Filipino American History month, Milani will be presenting a Watercolor Wellness Workshop on Saturday, October 3 from 2:30 to 4 pm at Martha Cooper Library (1377 N. Catalina Ave.).
Participants will paint the Sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines. Supplies will be provided and participants will have a lovely watercolor painting to take home with them.
The event is limited to 35 participants, first come first served and is open to tweens, teens, adults, and families. No experience is required!
Niki: We're excited to talk to you about your art and your journey. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey from the Philippines to the desert southwest of Tucson?
Milani
I'm so glad to be here. I have lived here in Tucson for more than three decades. My parents are both Filipino. They're from the Bicol Region in the Philippines in Southern Luzon. I am the middle child of three siblings who are first generation. My dad was in the Navy and brought my mom over after they got married and started their new family and so I have been in California, Virginia and now I call Arizona my home and so that's the story of my Filipino heritage.
Niki: That's exciting! What about your art journey? How did you get into painting and illustration?
Milani
I’ve always loved art. As a child I would draw Disney characters as well as Archie comics. I never pursued art professionally until recently.
My focus has been marketing and communications, but I'm so excited to now teach art to seniors and tweens. I also teach art at nature camps through Oro Valley Parks and Recreation. It's been a wonderful journey to get people to be creative and to explore their inner artists, because I think people forget that we are all artists and sometimes we get in our own way. You just need to have fun, relax, go with the flow, and let go to the fluidity of the medium. I think that's why watercolor is a meditative experience.
I've done Watercolor Wellness in the past at libraries for Asian American Pacific Islander Month and I'm excited to do it again. Thank you, Niki, for inviting me.
Niki: Is watercolor your preferred medium?
Milani
Actually, I prefer working with clay. I do a lot of sculpture. Watercolor has been a recent painting experience for me. I have done paintings in acrylic, and I do like to sketch. I've been dabbling in sequential art and that's why I went to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD a couple weeks ago.
Niki: When you say sequential art, what do you mean exactly?
Milani
Graphic books and novels. I'm currently working on a graphic memoir. It originally started as a children's book about Pedro Flores, the yo-yo entrepreneur who is of Filipino descent. He was the entrepreneur and marketing genius behind yo-yo competitions and caught the eye of Don Duncan and Don Duncan bought the patent for yo-yos, because Pedro Flores had patented the yo-yo in its current form for competition. I had been playing around because when I first moved to Tucson, I met Don Duncan Junior at the former Yo-Yo Museum on Country Club Rd. He was telling me about the Filipino connection.
I have been interested in watercolor and so I went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and her studio and Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú, New Mexico. That brought me to the idea of watercolor of the Sampaguita, which is the national flower of the Philippines and which most people know as Arabian Jasmine. It's a very tiny flower but I liked how Georgia O’Keeffe magnified flowers. It's just a reminder of nature. You almost feel like you're a hummingbird when you are in
front of one of her paintings.
They're so beautiful. When you invited me last time to do a paradise scene of the Philippines, I focused on Mount Mayon, the volcano. This time I'm focusing on the Sampaguita and doing a Georgia O'Keeffe style-rendering. I brought a sample of the watercolor that I did. With watercolor, it’s harder to paint flowers that are white.
You're dealing with a lot of light grays and playing with the fluidity of the brush and the paint. I’ve taught people in the past to think of tea or coffee - when you paint, the more water you have, the lighter and more fluid on your paintbrush. But the less water you have, the more color and it's more like coffee because it's a thicker consistency. So I just want people to have fun because they need to play. That’s what art does for me - it allows me to play.
Niki: How do you feel your Filipino American identity has informed your artwork and maybe content and style?
Milani
I never thought that it had until recently, to be honest. I don't know if it's due to all of the Filipino Instagram posts of late. Filipino heritage is a hot topic now and it's pretty timely to be invited to participate in Filipino American History Month because it highlights how Filipinos have contributed to our culture, even recent stars like Olivia Rodrigo. It's fun to look back at the history because Filipino American History Month is based on the citing of Filipinos at Morro Bay, but the first Asian American settlement was actually in the marshlands of Louisiana and so I guess there were escapees of the Spanish galleons and there were what they call Manila men that established St. Malo in the marshlands of Louisiana, and that was, I believe, in the 1700s.
Niki: Were there any specific artists that influenced your art or do you have a favorite artist or artists?
Milani
Georgia O'Keeffe, since I went to her studio in Abiquiú, has been a really an amazing influence and inspiration, as well as Frida Kahlo of Mexican heritage just by virtue of them being women artists, I guess. That has been really impactful to my art and helping people find their inner artists and do these workshops, whether they're seniors, learning about cactus flowers or tweens, or campers that go to nature camp.
I enjoy seeing people find their creativity. I don't want them to follow what I'm doing - I want them to find their own style.
Niki: I know you talked about the graphic novel that you're working on. Do you want to share information about your art and children’s book illustration and groups that you are a part of?
Milani
Sure, I've been a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I think of myself as an illustrator first. Writing is part of the story and you really have to start with the words and then make sure that the graphics behind the words are telling another story because you don't need it to repeat what is already obviously the words. And if you could tell the story visually as well, that's important.
Megan, a librarian at the Kirk-Bear Canyon Library, and I have connected because she's an illustrator as well. She is doing a book that's being published in Korea and so I'm so happy for her. She connected me with you for Biblio Lotus, so that was nice.
Niki: I think that is awesome and that's what Biblio Lotus is about - building connections in the community and spotlighting local Asian American talent. Do you have a specific technique that you use when you're building illustrations?
Milani
I believe that visuals, especially for graphic novels or picture books, depend on page turns. You can slow a story down or build suspense by the sequence of your art. A huge spread verses minor action shots can help build your story and visually there are a lot of techniques that I'm learning and are helping me grow.
We had talked earlier about the Small Press Expo and this is a book that I've read:
He spoke at the conference and he actually spoke on the topic of “Silence that inner critic”. I wanted to go to that because sometimes my inner critic is too loud. It turns out there are a lot of artists and people in general have their own inner critic.
And we just need to learn how to silence it! It was kind of funny because at the beginning of the conference, he asked, “Can some of you shout out what your inner critic is saying right now?” And I didn't - I was too shy, but other people were saying exactly what my inner critic was saying. They were all saying, “You're too old or it's been done before or I don't have time" and I was like, wow, that's kind of wild that everybody has the same demons. He gave us some exercises on how to silence that and to just keep creating your art - be surrounded by your art and observe how you've grown and learn and judge in the sense of not criticizing yourself, but judge the work itself and see how you progressed. It's interesting to have that different mindset to shut that critic down.
Niki: What do you hope people will experience when they see your art?
Milani
Well, I feel like I've always enjoyed nature as being part of my art experience. I started out as a marketing and licensing person at World Wildlife Fund in Washington DC. And so I always liked the cause related aspects of art and using that to educate people.
In whatever respect that might have an impact for historical purposes, we're talking about Filipino American History Month and there are a lot of Filipino Americans who had impact and there's history and let's celebrate that as not only Filipino Americans but as Americans.
Niki: I think recently there was a highlight of the Filipino American man who helped to bring worker rights but was over overshadowed by Cesar Chavez.
Milani:
Right - Larry Itliong
Niki: It’s interesting because these are tidbits of history I didn't have awareness of so it's nice to see those are coming to light. Is there an anticipated published date for the graphic novel or general date of anticipated completion?
Milani
I wish it was sooner than later but we’ll see - I can't give you a date because a lot of that depends on if I self-publish or can I find a publisher and you know, it's just the nature of the beast. Graphic novels take a long time. I had been talking to several people and they were talking about years - possibly five years. That's a long time.
Niki: Each page is its own artwork, right?
Milani
Right. And you almost feel guilty when you read graphic novels because it can take you a day and it's like this took somebody a year or more to create.
Niki: But the amazing thing for graphic novel authors and illustrators is that it has engaged a community of readers who might not otherwise get engaged with reading so there's a nice aspect of reaching folks who weren’t maybe drawn to traditional chapter books.
Milani
What's so exciting is they just opened the (George) Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and I can't wait to see that. Both my children live in Los Angeles and so the next time we visit, I want to go see that. It's all about storytelling, right? My first job was an advertising agency, and we used to make storyboards for commercials, and I was always fascinated by that because it could be a full-length movie Hollywood types develop and you know there are even books now of movies based on a story, books that that lay down the foundation prior to the actual movie so that you know the camera person or the actor can see the concept of the writer and how they laid out the storyboard and how they wanted the shot to look. It's sequential art, that's what graphic novels are.
Niki: That's interesting. I wouldn't have considered those advertising storyboards or marketing storyboards to equate to that, but you're right, it's storytelling in a different form.
Niki: Are there any words of guidance or advice that you want to give to young artists who want to pursue art as a career?
Milani
Well, both my kids are creative and so I've always told them to draw and create and find your own style and it's exciting. My son has had some of his artwork up at the Tucson International Airport and it's a drawing of me drinking water - it's a PSA message telling people to hydrate in the hot months of Tucson. It’s fun to see them use their creative know-how and part of me is like, oh, it's because they went to that summer camp and that taught them how to be creative so hopefully I'm doing that now with my artistic outreach through nature camps.
Niki: Besides teaching, working on the graphic novel, professional development - I feel like you've got a lot going on! - are there other projects (besides the upcoming watercolor workshop at the library) or anything else you wanted to share that is going on with your art?
Milani
I have a lot of ideas, so nothing specific that I can share at the moment, but I am excited about being at Martha Cooper on October 3 at 2:30 for the Watercolor Wellness Workshop. Please know that no experience is necessary! There are 35 slots and we have all the art supplies. We are excited to paint sampaguitas or Arabian Jasmine, Georgia O'Keeffe style.
Niki: I know our participants will be excited and we feel really honored to be able to have you to present that to us and celebrate Filipino American History Month.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you and learning about your journey and your thoughts and ideas about the sequential art form. Thank you so much, Milani - we appreciate everything you've shared with us today.
Milani
Thank you. I appreciate you. I really am honored that I've been invited to speak for Filipino American History Month. Thank you.
