Tibolina Dancing with Innocence
18"x 24" Oil on Canvas 2018
Deedee Silva Gonzales Collection
The artist was inspired to compose the subject using her granddaughter's picture during their cultural dance presentation in the Project Hope Kinder school . The dance with a "malong" is an ethnic dance by Tiboli teenage girls as a sign of flirtation and open to accept suitors. Since it is a child dancing, the artist conceptualize it into a dance with innocence. She is so tiny like Thumbilina, that she named her Tibolina dancing on top of a white lotus flower which symbolizes purity, fertility and spiritual strength. Thus the dance is calling the deities to grant for abundance and peaceful living among the people in a community. Therefore, Tibolina is not part of Tiboli culture, it was only an artist inspiration based on one of their cultural dances