I am Trisha Yambao, 24, a certified recycled paper artist. The garbage that you put in that black plastic bag are my raw materials for my art. I grew up in an environment where my parents treated filthy, bad smelling trash as gold and our mining site is your garbage bag.
I used to collect old newspapers and recycled them. I turned them into beautiful recycled stationeries. I did the design it and sold them to my friends. My brother, Francis, was into recycling too. Together with Dad, he would collect plastic bottles to transform into art pieces. Mom collected bio-degradable trash and turned those into fertilizer, which benefited our farm. She also considered herself to be an artist, I remember seeing her working on her egg shell artworks and she really influenced me to become an artist.
Although my playmates back when I was in grade school used to laugh at me, I remained firm and expressed myself in my artworks. I had this weird habit of collecting crumpled papers and putting them in my bag. And when I got home, I would transform them into beautiful recycled paper. They thought we were rich because I always had stationeries as scratch paper. Well, I didn't need to explain my side.
I remember I had this classmate that always gave me his crumpled paper. When he has scratch papers, he automatically puts them in my bag and he would wink at me. He always accompanied me when I collected paper from trash cans. He never laughed. He understood me and my passion for recycled paper.
But when we were in Grade 5, he told me that he was going to Greece with his family for good. I never saw him since our Grade 5 recognition day. Maybe he did go to Greece without saying goodbye.
I graduated from Philippine Women's University in Manila with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts and now I work as a design consultant in Taguig.
I have visited Japan several times for origami and paper-cutting art classes. I am now saving money to attend a paper fair in New York where I will be one of the exhibitors. Although my family would be helping me raise the funds, I wanted to save for myself and be independent.
I was in my room when I heard my door open. "Darling, I am discouraging you from going to New York," Mom honestly said. "Maybe not now."
"Mom . . ." I started with a sigh, "I want to do this for myself."
"But you need to rest."
"I know. That's why you are here to remind me of everything?" I smiled at her and she got teary-eyed.
She said, "I know you love paper art. But New York is a new place for you."
"It's just like Japan, Mom." I said, grinning.
Dad shouted with a loud voice, "But Japan is in Asia!"
"That's what I am pointing out, Love!" Mom shouted back.
"Okay, Mom. I'll consider that."
"Good girl!"
"Miami in December or New York in March?"
"New York with me?" My brother, Francis just arrived from his work as a call center agent. He continued to annoy me by saying, "I saw your crush just this morning."
By the way, my crush is a neighbor of mine who just arrived from somewhere in Europe. Sweden, I think. But he is a Filipino. I don't know his name though. All I know is I want to get his number. He might become a buyer of my stationeries. Yeah, right. Well, I have to admit this. I was dying to meet the boy-next-door.
I looked at Francis with disgust and this made him laugh.
"Way to go, Kiko the Monkey!" I rolled my eyes on him.
