W. Don Flores is an artist and educator based in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. His practice engages methodologies derived from drawing, painting, and film with a desire to question language, identity, and place. W. Don teaches studio and theory classes at the Silliman University Fine Arts Department.
acrylic on canvas panel
60.91 x 50.75 cm / 24.00 x 20.00 in.
W. Don Flores’ works are based on his experience of sugarcane fields being burned in the late ‘80s into the ‘90s. These burnings occurred as expected/scheduled field cleaning by the sugarcane companies. Or, significantly, as part of NPA countryside action/strategy.
His interest lies not in the plasticity of the paint but rather its semiotic connection to the colors of sugarcane fields on fire—where white smoke indicates a low-moisture fire; and black, a high-moisture fire producing more soot. These paintings are of distant signals and urgent warnings arising from the conflicted situation between farmers and landowners in the hacienda setting.
Exhibit
