Ariel Dizon Barish

One Fine Day

In Spring 2024, I made a series of reduction woodcut prints that portray the women on my mother’s side. It was important for me to make these prints because of the lack of existing media that tell Filipino American stories, and it would be a disservice to them to act as if the work told by others is an adequate representation of their unique experiences. My portfolio is limited in the sense that it was created by my own interpretation of their lives with few resources, but they are a product of oral storytelling which has its own cultural value. I aimed to address the main recurring themes I found while discussing the project with my mother: religious abuse, differing trauma responses such as fawning or dissociation, and assimilation, which are all products of colonialism. 

  • Woodblock print depicting three generations of a family and their shared love of art.
  • Woodblock print depicting three generations of a family and their shared love of art.
  • Woodblock print depicting three generations of a family and their shared love of art.

My portfolio consists of  a 7 color 18 x 24” image, a total of 23, One Fine Day, that depicts my grandmother, my mother, and myself in our shared love for art. Each generation had a similar passion for art but could not pursue it due to their reality as Filipino-American women in the 20th century with socio-economic and cultural constraints.

Woodblock print of a girl in Hawaii.
Manoa Valley Stallion, 12 x 16″, woodcut reduction (2024), ©Ariel Dizon Barish

Woodblock print of a young woman playing a piano.
Wilting Point, 12 x 16″, woodcut reduction (2024), ©Ariel Dizon Barish

Woodblock print of women aged beyond their years enduring physical labor.
Men the Size of Insects, 9 x 12″, woodcut (2024), ©Ariel Dizon Barish

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