New Westminster, B.C.
“Common Chords” features Paulina Constancia’s music-themed works for nearly 3 decades
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
A daughter immortalizes the beautiful memory of her father’s birthday serenade on a harmonica to each of his six children in one of her works of art.
“Those little experiences stay with you,” said Filipino-Canadian artist Paulina Constancia as she shared one of her fondest memories in her childhood. Constancia shares her life experiences through her works in “Common Chords,” a solo exhibition at The Gallery at Queen’s Park, New Westminster, British Columbia.
Presented by Arts New West in collaboration with the Filipino Music and Art Foundation in BC (FMAFBC), “Common Chords” runs from September 8 to 26 with workshops scheduled on different dates.
Constancia, who moved to Canada when she was 30 years old, is the artist behind the vibrant, naif-inspired paintings that celebrate joy, community, and the quiet poetry of everyday life.
Paulina has exhibited her art in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, The Netherlands, Mexico and in various cities in the US and Canada.
Her art is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Naïve Art (MoNA) in the Philippines, Musée international d’art naïf de Magog in Canada and the Galerija likovnih samorastnikov Trebnje (Gallery of Naive Artists Trebnje ) in Slovenia.
Aside from her paintings, the exhibit this month draws together her music-themed works created over nearly three decades – including trapuntos, textile collages, and other textile-inspired pieces.
Visitors are also invited to participate in Our Shared Song, an interactive installation where they can contribute an illustrated musical note reflecting what keeps their spirit alive, creating a growing artwork that evolves throughout the exhibition.
Common Chords explores how music accompanies everyday life, marking celebrations, strengthening relationships, and reminding us of our shared humanity.
“Perhaps the most meaningful music we create is not the melody we sing alone, but the harmony we build together,” Constancia said.
In an exclusive interview with PhilippineCanadianNews.Com, Constancia shares her artistic journey and all the life strings attached to it.
When did you start making art?
I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember. Creativity was always part of my life, although I didn’t initially set out to become a professional visual artist. I studied Mass Communication and later Education, and my creative life has taken many forms—writing, music, designing fashion, teaching and eventually visual art. I began exhibiting professionally in the Philippines in the 1990s, and over time art became the thread connecting all these different parts of my life.
Is this your profession or do you have a day job?
I am a full-time artist, writer and community arts facilitator. My practice has never been limited to simply making and exhibiting artwork. I also write, teach and facilitate community arts experiences, and I enjoy bringing different forms together—visual art, storytelling, poetry and music.
When did you move to Canada and why?
I moved to Canada when I was 30. I was still single and free, and I felt I had the ability to choose a whole new setting for my next adventure. By then, I had already been working as a creative practitioner, and a consultant advised me that, with my credentials and professional experience, I could qualify to apply to Canada as a self-employed cultural contributor. I thought, why not? It felt like an opportunity to continue my creative life in a completely new environment and see where it would take me.
What did you study in school?
I studied at St. Theresa’s College in Cebu, where I completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication and later a Certificate in Education. I am also a certified English as a Second Language teacher through the Cambridge CELTA program and have a Certificate in Spanish Language and Culture from the University of Calgary.
Interestingly, I don’t have a formal degree in fine arts, although I briefly took classes in fashion and sculpture, both in California. I am largely self-taught as a visual artist, and that has given me the freedom to develop my own visual language through experimentation, curiosity and on-demand learning. When an idea calls for a particular material or technique, I learn what I need, explore it in my own way, and make it part of my practice.
Was your family into art and music aside from owning businesses in Cebu?
There were no professional visual artists in my immediate family when I was growing up, although creativity can be traced further back on both sides of my family, to my paternal and maternal great-grandfathers.
Music, however, was definitely present in our home. One of my fondest memories is of my father playing the harmonica. There were six of us children, and on our birthdays he would wake us with a birthday serenade on his harmonica. Those little experiences stay with you.
Music also became part of my own life. I was a pioneering member of the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra, and I was already experimenting with songwriting as a teenager. My older brother Joel is very musical, and my nephew Mikko Pablo is a concert cellist in Europe, so there must be some musical gene somewhere in the family!
Although I eventually became known primarily as a visual artist, music has always been somewhere in my life.
What inspired your works in this exhibit?
Common Chords brings together music-inspired works spanning about 30 years, from the 1990s to the present. So it wasn’t a case of making one new body of work around a theme. I realized that music had been appearing in my art again and again throughout different periods and places in my life.
But the exhibition isn’t really about music in the technical sense. I use music as a metaphor for life. A chord is made of different notes, and I think community works in much the same way. We don’t have to be the same to create harmony.
That is also why I wanted participation to be part of the exhibition. I wanted people not just to look at the work, but to recognize something of their own lives in it and, in some instances, add their own voice to the exhibition.
What message do you want to share with your artwork?
For this particular collection, Common Chords, I want to say that it is important to keep music in our lives—not just as something we listen to, but as something we engage in and share with others. Music is powerful in many ways. It can soothe an aching heart, inspire an uninspired life, bring back a memory, and even help calm conflict. But when we actively share music—when we sing, play, listen or simply experience it together—it asks us to be present for one another. We listen. We take turns. We make room for another voice. We acknowledge each other’s presence. In that sense, sharing music becomes a way of witnessing each other’s lives.
I think we need more of that. Music gives us a very human way to feel more connected and less divided or distant from one another. Harmony doesn’t require us to be the same. It happens because different voices listen and find a way to exist together.
Each of us brings a note, a sound, a story.
Together, we become a living mosaic of voices and lives.
That, to me, is Common Chords.
Constancia also shares her love for art. Workshop links are below and more details can be found on her website: paulinaconstancia.com
Workshop #1: Found Sounds, Register via Eventbright
Workshop #2: Listening Lines, Register via Eventbright
Workshop #3: Three Chords, Three Languages, Register via Eventbright
Workshop #4: Drawn to Words: Writing Through Art And Sound, Registration (link coming)