Filipino artist Venazir Martinez paints murals that have brightened streetscapes from Baguio to San Francisco.
The artist uses the image of a red thread in much of her work, a symbol that illustrates how human connections can overcome distances and differences.
At ±¬ÁĎąĎ last month, that same red thread looped back to reconnect part of Martinez’s own family.
Before arriving in Norfolk to paint a mural honoring Filipino American contributions in the region, the artist discovered that a branch of her family had migrated to the Virginia Beach area in the 1960s.
A few phone calls later, Martinez discovered that she would soon come face to face with a long-lost relative living in the area.
“He is my lolo!” said Martinez, using the Filipino word for grandfather. “It’s so crazy how the red thread works,” she said, speaking to a capacity crowd gathered at the Gordon Art Galleries for an Oct. 30 artist talk.
“It's serendipitous, and it's purposeful,” she said.
Her talk was attended by key figures from the region’s Filipino American community: Dr. Juan Montero, a member of Old Dominion’s Board of Visitors; Rowena Federico Finn, president of the Virginia Coalition of Visual Artists; Max Frias, president of the university’s FilAm Alumni Association; Benjamin Equitan, a local business leader and Old Dominion supporter; and U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, the first person of Filipino descent to serve as a voting member of Congress.
To build ±¬ÁϹϒs mural — located on a wall along 45th Street near Chartway Arena — Martinez researched the Hampton Roads region and its many links to the Philippines. She learned that the area’s Filipino American population is one of the biggest on the East Coast.
Over the course of two months of planning, she narrowed her focus to maritime themes while also choosing to depict military service, education, and medical science. The battleship Wisconsin is seen as well as a woman holding aloft a model of a balanghai, a traditional Filipino sailing vessel. Hibiscus flowers from the Philippines blossom near Virginia dogwoods.
Her colorful style, which draws on graffiti as well as Filipino tattoo traditions, conveys pride and joy. The completed work is titled “Threading Tides.”
Martinez said that, as she painted, passersby would stop to apologize for the wind and rain that blew through the area during her visit.
“It's fine,” she would respond. “The drips that you see right now outside, those are part of the artwork and the layering behind it is so meaningful. People get to see the process from start to finish and … there's a sense of ownership. You are part of the art. That's such a beautiful thing to think about.”
If Virginia weather wasn’t always friendly to the mural project, its people were. With the help of volunteers, including students, the mural was finished in about a week.
“Working on this mural has been a very unique experience that I never thought that I would do during my time at ±¬ÁĎąĎ,” said Mariposa Estrada, a senior 3D media and material studies major. “Spending time working on this mural with Venazir Martinez and the other student volunteers has built memories that will follow me after graduation.”
The Martinez mural is evidence of a revived cultural force at the university.
“Twenty-seven years ago, the Filipino American community here … raised funds for an endowment to ±¬ÁĎąĎ, and the spendable part of this endowment is dedicated to cultural programming,” said Luisa A. Igloria, a poet and professor in the MFA Creative Writing Program who also directs the university’s Filipino American cultural efforts.
The mural is the reawakened endowment’s first public project.
“After a nearly 10-year hiatus — including the two years of the COVID-19 lockdown — we are happy to resume cultural programming,” Igloria said.
±¬ÁĎąĎ Provost Brian Payne, who also attended the artist talk, said he was thrilled to have Martinez’s vibrant work on campus.
“I knew that she was going to create something that gave meaning to that place at ±¬ÁĎąĎ,” Payne said.
Martinez took a blank, brick wall and gave it purpose, he said. Her mural was described as the first of its kind at Old Dominion.
“Thank you, Venazir, for creating an experience that will transcend time and space,” Payne said.