By Gian Cruz
A washi tape is a decorative Japanese tape that tons of crafters are obsessed with. Call it a fancy masking tape. We have no idea how the washi tape came about and suddenly became trendy. Washi tapes are used to decorate everything from scrapbooks to gift wrappers and tea cups.
Washi tape isn’t something one would easily associate with portraits, but artist Geraldine (“Ge”) Mapa can tell us otherwise. Her very first washi tape project was in November 2013 for the Bloom Arts Festival.
It was comprised of three 18” X 18” acrylic sheets with the portraits of Garovs Vergara, Twiggy, and Andy Warhol.
Khismet Maralit with a portrait of Twiggy
Last May 2014, Heima home and lifestyle store invited Ge to do a live washi tape demo at their craft event, which led to the creation of Margot and Richie Tenenbaum on clipboards.
The event drew a lot of interest whether the artworks were for sale, which eventually led to Heima and Ge doing more portraits. So, for the 5th anniversary party of Heima, a Wes Anderson tribute was agreed upon, which led to Ge doing an additional ten more of Anderson’s characters, including Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Geraldine Mapa
Meanwhile on Facebook, Ge Mapa got tagged by a friend about an exhibit of Bill Murray artworks, which was open to anyone in the world. Ge gave it a shot and submitted a photo of her work.
A week later, her artwork ended up in a Huffington Post article on the exhibit, but sadly not to her credit, so she contacted the curator and the Huffington Post.
The curator replied that the matter should be fixed, with the good news that her artwork was going to be part of the exhibit. On top of that, Ge also found out that Time magazine had made an inquiry about the piece. And that’s how she ended up on Time.
The Bill Murray Art Show takes place on August 8, 2014 at Public Works in San Francisco, CA.
For more information, go to http://www.themurrayaffair.com/
To contact Ge Mapa, email her at laserlollipop@gmail.com.
Special thanks to HEIMA for the photos
