Conceived in the ash-strewn aftermath of 2018’s incendiary ‘PVRTD’ project, ‘Once Upon A Watercolor’ is a project marking off a multitude of firsts. First among them is a foray into watercolor painting. Second is the unlikely targeted audience of children. Third is the use of a formal rhyming scheme. Taken together, they form one of the only family-friendly projects Alan Ilagan has ever created, and a quintessentially quirky one at that.
Crafting ‘Once Upon A Watercolor’ in the winter of 2019, Ilagan originally intended to write a quick little story for the children in his life – his niece and nephew and all the kids of his friends – as a possible Christmas gift. Initially he had purchased some stock watercolor paintings of flowers online, but decided they were “too precious” for his loose party tale, taking the abstract backgrounds that comprise ‘Once Upon A Watercolor’ into his own admittedly-amateurish hands. “I hadn’t painted with watercolors since I was five years old,” Ilagan says, “so this was a way of returning to my own childhood while passing the winter with a colorful hobby.”
Following the dark themes and disturbing images of ‘PVRTD’ – the black and white photo essay that depicted the worst aspects of humanity, Ilagan was seeking something colorful and light-hearted and whimsical. The heaviness of ‘PVRTD’ weighed upon both viewer and creator, imbuing everything with shadow and doubt. A powerful reflection of its time, it wasn’t exactly fun to make. (Alan shot most of it with the people he loved the most to add at least one layer of unseen warmth to the affair, but it had little effect: ‘PVRTD’ remains a cold and upsetting experience.) The antidote, conjured in a flurry of post-‘PVRTD’ project work, is ‘Once Upon A Watercolor’ – which finds his creative process in fascinating flux. “I’m clearly not becoming a painter anytime soon,” he reassures us, “But it was the best way of working through the winter.”
Now, at the height of summer, the new project is being unveiled at a private party, and will go online shortly thereafter.
{See The Projects Page in the coming weeks.}
