The Traveling Fairy is my constant companion. She is with me wherever I go in whatever country I live in. I have traveled and lived in so many different cities and countries all my life such as Manila, Switzerland, Singapore, Bali, Chicago, New York, just to name a few, that sometimes I can't help but feel uprooted. I have to learn to adjust to a new culture and learn different languages, meet new friends, and say goodbye to the old ones, families are separated by illness and death or just by constantly relocating all the time, jobs are lost, new jobs are found. But somehow, somewhere , in whatever part of the world I live in, I manage to set up studio and work on my art. Art is the one thing constant in my life. This is how I stumbled upon the Traveling Fairy. She appeared again to me yesterday and here she is:
Below is an article on my participation in "Silk Road" Exhibit USA 2006
Promoting Cultural Awareness and Diversity Through the Arts :
Multi-cultural artist Maria Madonna Davidoff was born in the Philippines but has lived and exhibited in Europe, Asia and the United States. She studied printmaking and painting at The Art Students League of New York, Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in Manila, and traditional batik painting in Bali, Indonesia. She is currently based in New York and Singapore.
Her Selected group and solo exhibitions includes the FusionArts Museum in New York city, Cedar Ridge Gallery in Toronto, Canada, TokyoMetropolitan Museum in Japan, GSIS Museum in Manila, The Museum of the Americas in Florida, The Museum of Art and History, in Fribourg, Switzerland, the New Delhi F.A.C Society Gallery in India, Visconti Gallery in Paris, France, and the Mesnerhaus Gallery in Tirol, Austria. The Swiss Consulate Cultural Section of New York, features regularly in their Swiss Events Series and she is also often listed with the Asian American Arts Alliance calendarofevents in New York City.
She was included in books entitled: Fragments of Young Swiss Art published by UBS of Switzerland and also Filipino-Americans in Our Midst published in the United States.Her works were also presented during the symposium on The History of Philippine-American Art at Montclair State University and was a guest lecturer/visiting artist at the Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
She was invited to participate and exhibit as guest artist in Langenfeld, Austria for the Austrian International Art Symposium called Between Worlds, Between Borders, 2005.
Maria Madonna Davidoff has been reviewed by a Washington Post art critic who wrote, ”Of the thirty three works on view at the Foundry Gallery, I liked Maria Madonna Davidoff's mix-media scrolls…”
Aside from being a fine artist, she is also an award-winning book cover illustrator and her artworks have been published in books, magazines and major newspapers.Her website is: www.madonnaart.com
ARTIST STATEMENT
Being a multi cultural artist who has lived and traveled in 3 different continents in the world definitely affected my work. Thus, my paintings and prints are based on personal as well as universal icons. The word icon may mean an image, a representation, a simile or symbol. Icons are very much a part of our present world. It has been used since pre-historic time and we are still being influenced by it.
In my latest mix media Scroll Series, I try to develop art that is both lyrical and portable, a reflection of the nomadic nature of one who is constantly on the move. Recognizing this sense of displacement, I never really belong anywhere, and so I try to create my own cultural space wherever I find myself. It is a way for me as an artist to make sense of things around me. Thus, creating the scrolls make perfect sense since these banner-like images are "transportable" just like myself. The scrolls can easily be rolled up and carried around and like myself, could be reinvented, able to adapt and survive. My motivation in creating works of art stems from my enjoyment in expressing myself and exposure to different cultures continues to inspire me in so many ways, I have acquired a more global perspective on the symbols and images in art. I've also come to realize that symbols and icons all over the world speak of the universal themes of fear, joy, hope, pain, and celebration. I believe that we are one collective eye sharing a single planet.
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