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