Here’s a portrait I made of my big bro, Paolo, who turns 44 today.🍾🎂 We’re just a little over a year apart, and I remember insisting on calling him by his first name when we were kids. Maybe it was on my first day in kindergarten, when he return-shoved a boy who shoved me, that I officially started calling him Kuya or “older brother” in Filipino.🦸🏻♂️
It was Kuya who took my first artist headshot. He sat me down and said he needed a subject for his photos. There’s a refreshing honesty in the resulting photos , sharing one outtake here 📸.
There’s an ease and familiarity between siblings that’s born out of years of relentless taunting, no holds-barred conversations and all the ups and downs of family life. Family, after all, is our biggest karma–they’re the people we have the strongest inner work with, i.e. karmic debt we pay together. They also make the best mirrors, showing us who we are, at our best and worst.
Kuya is the only sibling who has shown consistent interest in my art and creative journey, and it’s something I am truly, deeply thankful for 🙏. When he asked for “Henry”, one of the all-time favorite paintings, I knew he was the right home for him.
👀Red Day is vision day, and today I re-viewed myself from the point of view of the men around me.🤵♂️ Also deeply thankful for my spouse, Koray, who everyday teaches me what it means to be seen, cherished and supported fully:
When two or more people are truly together, a channel is open and something immortal can enter. And when two are together in the name of confiding love, a spiritual being can come and dwell in this space.
Julian Sleigh, Friends and Lovers 👩❤️👨
❤️On this Red Day: take stock of the mirrors 🪞 you hold dear, and check too how good of a mirror you are to them. 🥰
