Artwork copyright Romson Bustillo. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2021.

Artwork copyright Romson Bustillo. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, by Everything Time Studio, 2021.

Self-Portrait, 2018, 2018

Romson Bustillo
(American, born 1970)

Location: North Hill Elementary, Des Moines

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Self-Portrait, 2018 by Romson Bustillo is part of his series of self-portraits. His art practice is often based on research, especially about his family’s Filipino background and their migration to the United States. His heavily patterned and textured artworks represent an intermingling of past, present, and future. Bustillo notes that “Art is information as much as it is something inexplicable. When we look at it, we have an emotional and a visceral reaction, but it is not removed from the way we’ve been conditioned to process information.”

In collagraphic printmaking, various materials are collaged onto a printing plate. This process creates a variety of textures and forms in the print.

This artwork is part of a curated collection by Asia Tail for North Hill Elementary, in Des Moines, Western Washington, in July 2021. The local art selection committee wanted art that reflects their diversity, their values as a sustainable green school, and the 5th grade experience of growth, togetherness, and transitions. The artworks show us that everything is connected. Asia Tail notes “Just as people shape the land, the land shapes us. How we treat our plant and animal relatives matters now and for all the generations that come next.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Highline School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Romson Bustillo is a printmaker and mixed media artist. He creates layered artworks that explore how we process information and move through different environments. His art is tied to his Philippine lineage, South Seattle and Pacific Northwest upbringing, and research travels to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Western Europe, and Africa. In his own words, “I populate spaces with images and concepts that question and explore how place, context, and visual cues modify, enhance, and divert meanings. I make art to claim presence; revisit truths; and to break constructed designations of place.”

Born in the Philippines, Bustillo's family immigrated to Seattle in 1978 when he was eight years old. He has taught print and mixed media arts for over twenty years at the Pratt Fine Arts Center, the University of Washington’s Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) program, and Seattle Art Museum (all in Seattle). He was awarded the Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award in 2021. He is based in Seattle.