Visual Artist
Kim Antonette “Kunaya” Lopez
Kim Antonette Lopez or “Kunaya”, her tribal name which she inherited from her ancestors due to the tradition of Sagada, was born in E. Rodriguez, Quezon City. She is a resident of Baguio now where she established “Kunaya’s Art” as her artisan business. She focuses on watercolor, acrylic painting, murals and digital illustrations mostly for the youth. Her illustrations are used to visually communicate social causes through books of non-government organizations she partners with. The mural projects she does together with his colleagues are for the cause of the community. Such shared knowledge through her art are also for the educational growth of the children and preservation of the indigenous people’s culture and arts.
At an early age of eight, she explored the world of visual arts. She is a self-taught artist from childhood within her home but she was later mentored by local artists helping her improve her skills. She developed her creative identity while she was in high school by joining art programs and having her fine arts degree in UP Baguio. She has been an active artist in Baguio for more than ten years
Kunaya’s Works
In doing her traditional artform, the materials she uses consists of graphite pencils, watercolor sets, acrylic paints and ink. Meanwhile, her tools involve different pens, paint brushes, paint rollers, blenders, varnish and canvas stretchers. She sometimes mixes different art media for her projects. As a digital illustrator, she utilizes common applications such as Adobe and Procreate. She purchases her supplies from art stores but an interesting concept about what she does with her partnerships is that her sponsors provide her the materials and tools that she needs in order to accomplish a task for her clients. With her friendly nature not just as an artist but as a person, her friends give her gifts that aid her in creating art.
Kunaya stated that visual planning is important to her art process. For her traditional art procedure, she starts by visual planning and thumbnailing a sketched composition as a draft. She then sketches and analyzes color swatches to grasp an idea for her artwork. Her methods for painting involve color blocking, detailing and glazing. After she is done, she frames her work and preserves it. As for her digital practices, she researches then builds content about her subject. She plans a page with master page templates. She proceeds with the page layouts and lastly, the cover art. Her personal paintings and illustrations take a week to finish and a day or three for her digital projects. Painting murals consumes a lot of time with considerations for natural causes giving her team of muralists setbacks in their schedules thus, a mural project takes a week to three months to accomplish.
Kunaya is known for her infusion of indigenous and cultural elements with her modern art style. She likes infusing impactful narratives in her compositions. She is very specific with her choice of colors and how her elements harmoniously contrast and balance. A lot of indigenous artists like Kunaya infuse their works with cultural and traditional elements. What she does as an artist gives her purpose giving her sense of belongingness to a community that has been enriched with partnerships and collaborations with NGOs in her experience. The only part of being an artist that she dislikes is the grunt work and the repetitive tasks that can take a toll on her physical, mental and emotional state but such obstacles are an important part of the process. She has experience in teaching kids. Art has been essential to her formative years, teaching art is her way to repay what she learned and pass it on to the youth.
Kunaya is mostly fond of textures, textile, tattoo patterns, swirls and wave patterns from the southern culture. The cause, story and purpose an art portrays makes it beautiful in Kunaya’s opinion. The color harmony and composition and intentional curation of the elements makes an art more appealing. Kunaya’s art is a fine balance between industrial and traditional. Her passion is her means of livelihood. At first, it was frustrating for her not to have a specialty but a realization of embracing her multi potentiality is what she needed to gain a sense of purpose with what she does today.
information
Facebook:
Kunaya L. Lopez
Location:
Baguio City