I was surprised when I saw Mami waiting for me in the living room. She wasn’t in her battle gear: the flowered housedress that states she is dressed to stay home. Instead, she wore her windbreaker and slacks. She was quiet—a little more so than usual. She wasn’t smiling, but she was ready.

Jalandoni’s preferred medium is oils, but she has recently branched out to working with textile and sculpture. Her imaginative, colorful paintings trace the exploration of her Filipino heritage and bicultural identity. She achieves this through portraiture and collaging flower motifs, while also acknowledging Filipino national symbols and “typical” found objects in a Filipino household.