Ross Jaylo

Ross Jaylo, a New York-based Filipino Painter and multi-media artist renders onto canvas his conception of an ideal love. A symbolic and passionate visualization of love that transcends beyond social norms and breaks the illusion that love must heed society’s expectation of belief, social status, age, creed, race, gender, and stereotypes. Love in its purest form.

Ross first started with portraits—his ‘original love,’ but the artist eventually found this style limiting.

“I transitioned to écorché because muscles and bones do not have the surface features—you cannot tell if the person is of a certain race, gender, class, or belief system unless you are highly discerning in anatomy. Without those limitations, the ‘subject’ has unlimited potential. I started with skulls first, then with muscles—elements that are universal to everyone,” he added.

To inspire people is one of the main reasons why Ross became a professional artist; he believes that the best way to inspire people is to tell a story—a story told in brushstrokes and colors.

But according to him, acquiring the concepts and the elements needed to tell his stories is the most difficult phase in the art process.

“Sometimes, the idea, concept, or a part of it, springs up in any part my day-to-day, and I build those moments with more moments that could be mundane or rare,” he added.

Ross explained that the difficulty in gathering concepts is retaining active thinking throughout the day—on the prowl, always observing and thinking, and looking for truly memorable things in reality.

“When I see real things, I also see what they could be. Sometimes, in those moments, I’d a particular, unique emotion. These are very fleeting, so I always carry a notebook or my phone to record those moments—when I forget that moment, it’s gone, or when I remember that moment after a long time, the comprehension of that moment is different,” he explained.

“I really want to learn how to be better in my art, and one way of learning is listening to how people view my work, their perceptions. Through my art, I also introduce aspects of me. It’s actually nerve-wracking because you never know how the people would receive your art; and, at the same time, also exciting, because who knows, they might love it. I want my work to inspire, which is why I paint—it is in the hopes of my stories becoming useful and meaningful to them,” Ross said.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.