About

Jean Vengua:
I’m a multimedia artist and writer, born and raised in California (currently living on Rumsen Ohlone lands), having clawed my way to a PhD in “American Lit” with a focus on Filipino American literature and print culture (UCSC / UC Berkeley).

As a self-taught process-oriented artist, I explore the properties of paper, wood, canvas, and recycled materials. I often use chance or self-imposed constraints to create art that surprises me, or inspires me to explore new configurations of art. Below: art and line work exploring the plant structure of paper; made with ballpoint pen and watercolor on handmade Lokta paper from Nepal:

A line drawing done in blue ink on naturally-textured Lokta paper. The lines follow the intricate, branching texture of the paper.
“Blue Okir.” Ink and watercolor on Lokta paper, 8.5 x 11 in. 3-17-2022_ JeanVengua

My parents were educated in the American colonial education system established in the Philippines in the early 20th century. As a Filipino-American artist, I bring a decolonial and secular Buddhist perspective to art practice, exploring and questioning how political, economic, and hierarchical systems impact our lives.

I’m also fascinated with writing’s haptic and visual qualities in the form of asemic (non-semantic) art: where physical gesture and expression overtakes conventional, written communication.

Asemic artist Mirtha Dermisache asks:

When the body speaks, what language does it use? If our usual words escape us, could it be that the body is transmitting a knowledge in a language of its own?

Dr. Leny Mendoza Strobel asks:

You can use all the deconstructive theories, post-colonial, postmodern theorizing. But then there comes a time when your body begins to speak. What is your body saying? For me, that is when decolonization evolved into something that’s no longer metaphorical—something more real and material.

Asemic art
Asemic art (from my “Dailies”). Graphite and ink on paper.

Steven J. Fowler and Graeme Webb have two of the best basic intros to asemic writing/art. Check out Fowler’s “Asemic Writing” (Center for Print Research, UWE Bristol), and Webb’s “A Rough Guide to Asemic Writing.”

  • To learn more about my individual art works and projects, visit my blog, contact me at jvengua@protonmail.com, or buy some of my smaller pieces at my FourthWall shop.
  • Need a professional (old school) editor? Contact me at Old Town Editing.
  • Member of IUOMA (Int’l Union of Mail Artists)