MILDRED GRACE GERMAN
BIO
Mildred Grace German was born and raised in the Philippines and came to Vancouver, Canada as a migrant youth in the late 90s on the sponsorship of her mother.
As a multi-disciplinary artist, German participated in many art venues. In the past, German’s artworks and participation were featured as part of the Art in the Court, Asian Canadian Online Project, Pinoy Poetiks, Roots, Rhymes and Resistance, World Mad Pride, the Work of Migration Exhibition, Centre A Political Fashion Show, Heart of the City Festival, the New Moon Festival, LIVE World Biennale of Performance Arts, the Maleta Exhibition at Gallery Gachet, and the Museum of Vancouver.
Her installation piece “Waiting” was featured in the book, Families Apart: Migrant Mothers and the Conflict of Labor and Love by University of British Columbia Geography Professor Geraldine Pratt.
German was also able to attend the 2008 Governor General’s Urban Arts Forum. In the same year, she also performed an interpretive dance at an international conference in Hong Kong, China. She also became part of the Vancouver Public Library’s “Voices” mentored by Japanese-Canadian writer and then Writer-in-Residence Hiromi Goto.
German also participated in the silent art auction at the First Migrante BC Gala in Vancouver on March 2016, and at the First Migrante BC TFW Conference in December 2016. In July 2016, German was part of the Mad City Group Exhibition at Gallery Gachet in Vancouver.
German also collaborated with several artists collectives. For many years, German was an active member of Sinag Bayan Arts Collective, where she was able to express her roots, and became a cultural worker making community banners and murals. She also became a member of the Philippine Artist Network for Community Integrative Transformation (PANCIT) under the facilitation of internationally-recognized Filipino muralist and cultural educator Bert Monterona. German is also a member of the Motivation, Power, and Achievement Society, where she paints at the Resource Centre Art Studio.
German also studied Culinary Arts and Patisserie Arts, and became a Professional Cook Apprentice under the Red Seal Program. She also was a volunteer radio technician and program host for several years at the Vancouver Co-op Radio.
In addition to art, she also likes to read, watch the sunset, listen to music, talk philosophy, and play with her cat.
Artist Statement
Title: Disconnected
How do we define this feeling---
That there is this vague truth
That suddenly we can lose control
Of our mind, our body, our soul?
That this life may not be ours?
We look around, in wake or sleep
The many corners, angles, and geographies
Of the past, the present, of the intangible future
Many obeys, many strives the unfamiliar paths
May our young still ask, why this vast universe?
We are forbade of perpetuity
Yet, there are pains that may never heal
Everyone may be living, but not all
May be breathing, or just grasping
While technologies and luxuries tower
Many remain lost in the ruins
Adrift, sunken, or migrating
Many are barely surviving
Fearing or braving the death-defying
Connecting the dots of alarms vs surprises
Privileges or circumstances
More may build some more
While more has nothing to built on
Wandering and wondering
Questioning, educating, preaching
Minding, ignoring, then forgetting
Many are just watching
Hoping, praying
Waiting--- for what?
A mystery, or misery
Tangled by patterns and hues
Disconnection
Deep abstruse
FEATURED ARTWORK
Disconnected / 16x18in, acrylic / $250