Cynthia Alexander

Cynthia Alexander - Typography

” Cynthia Alexander” is one of the Philippines’ most revered musicians and songwriters today. Her alternate guitar tunings, compelling melodies, and prose poetry tunnel into the marrow of experience. Highly intuitive, her music touches on super-conscious themes as well as on ordinary living, but always reflecting an intelligent artist seeking refuge from the rejections of pop inanity. “

She has succeeded in crafting music that’s distinctly Asian in character—anchored on elements of Malay and Indian ethnic—yet warmly assimilates Western influences such as jazz and the blues, with a nice touch of classical to boot.’ (Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 2008)

Words elude me whenever I try to put into words the woman-artist-poet-musician that is Cynthia Alexander. Her poetic, lyrical and multi-layered music-poem envelops me in a whirlwind of emotions. These emotions then break into “purple psychedellic” dusts, represented by these random thoughts:

• a young Jessette, picking flowers in summertime
• childhood
• mountain tops
• cosmic love
• moonlight
• raindrops and rain dance
• meditation

I always wanted to create and paint artworks that represents my taste in music and how these musicians have influenced me as an individual and as an artist. 

I have been listening to Cynthia Alexander for the last 8 years. Her live gigs at 70’s Bistro and at the Conspiracy Garden Cafe are weekends that I always look forward to (whenever I’m not spending the night on a mountain summit). In the artwork that I have created above, I used the elements of her hair to represent her four music albums, namely, Insomnia & Other Lullabyes, Ripping Yarns, Comet’s Tail and Walk Down The Road. Ms. Alexander is also a visual artist and painter, having designed most of the artworks in her music albums. She often renders her own self-portrait and a distinctive style that she uses is the way she illustrate her ears, which often comes in exaggerated size, so I decided to work along this style and adapt in into my artwork.

Hopefully, this will be the beginning of my personal project that will feature all my favourite artists like Loreena McKennit, Joni Mitchell, Carol Bello of Kalayo Band (formerly known as Pinikpikan Band), Janis Joplin and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane to name a few.

For more info about Cynthia Alexander, please visit her personal website at http://www.cynthialexander.com

When I heard Aaron singing this line from Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog as we were descending from the steep slopes of Mt. Banahaw (a famous Mystic Mountain in the Philippines), I thought to myself, “Wow! This guy really sings like a rockstar. A fan of Led Zeppelin myself, I hardly meet guys close to my age who are into the “Classic Rock” genre and rare moments like these really makes my adrenaline going.

That year was in February 2004 and our mountaineering group, HAKAMS (Hakbang Kalikasan Mountaineering Society) have spend our 6th year anniversary on the summit of Mount Banahaw. We traversed the mountain through this difficult trail known as “Guisguis Trail”. All of us in the group were low on food and exhausted, and though 6 years have passed since this experience, I strongly remember that one of the things that kept me going through that ordeal was singing with Aaron and joking around with him on this physically and mentally challenging descent of Mt. Banahaw.

The first three years of my mountaineering life had been the most physically active part of my adult life. On the average, we would usually spend about 2 weekends per month on the mountains. When you spend most of your time with your mountaineering buddies, depending and trusting them with your life, that’s about the time when you come around and realize that you have made such great friends for life, and Aaron is one of them.

Aaron

I always have the weakness for long-haired guys who bears to mind the image of a “rockstar”. Guys who wear leather boots with jeans and gives you the impression that he can burst into a rock song any given time. I first met Aaron in the summer of 2003. I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a mountaineer so I joined the group, HAKAMS (Hakbang Kalikasan Mountaineering Society) and Aaron is one of my batchmate. Aaron fell into the category of the long-haired guy/rockstar category and you can guess how I felt towards him at that moment. I later found out that he’s already committed, so I just decided to like him as a friend instead.

Almost a year went by and together with my two other female friends, Flor and Jenny, we became the “most active” girls in our batch (HAKAMS Batch 5). During those days, we’re really addicted to this outdoor sport and whenever we get the chance, we would organize our little “fun climbs”. These are climbs that were not “officially” part of the activities of our group and not bounded by any rules, so the climbs were more relaxed and a bit of crazy at times. As all of us are girls and climbing without a guy in a group can be quite dangerous, Aaron and Jeyps are the two guys who were always ready to join us in our mini climbs.

During those times, I didn’t harbour any thoughts that Aaron and I will have something special. We were just these group of young people, having fun and making our own little adventures in the mountains.

In the summer of 2004, me, Aaron, Flor, and Jeyps headed off to the summit of Mt. Arayat in the Province of Pampanga. We were the only the climbers on the summit that night. We watch the stars while we were drinking. I’m singing Cynthia Alexander’s “Slipping Away”, while Aaron plays his harmonica. We spent most of the night singing.

As I sing with him that night, I feel that something is happening and things are bound to change between us.

Last July 25 is Aaron’s birthday, so I draw his portrait as my gift to him. I haven’t done any serious portrait since I graduated from the College of Fine Arts and I feel that I need to create a portrait of this long-haired guy. My taste in guys still haven’t changed, I still prefer tough-looking, long-haired guys who can pass off as a rockstar…

I’ll be tying the knot with this long-haired guy soon, next year to be exact, after 5 long years of being together.  :)