Google Doodle celebrates Filipina activist/artist

The Google Doodle for today (Friday, July 31) celebrates Philippine artist, feminist, and activist Pacita Abad. On this day in 1984, Abad made history as the first woman to receive the Philippines’ prestigious Ten Outstanding Young Men award. 

Earning that distinction created an uproar of controversy in the Philippines. On the award, she said that “it’s time a woman was among the Ten Outstanding Young Men.”

Today's Abad Doodle was posted on Google in the U.S., the Philippines and Iceland.

Abad was born on October 5, 1946 in Basco, in the northern province of Batanes, the Philippines. She pursued graduate studies in Asian history and law at the University of San Francisco in San Francisco, Calif. in 1970 and became very involved in the city’s artistic community where she was encouraged to develop her art.

Abad went on to study painting and then traveled the world with her art supplies, from Bangladesh to Sudan, and the cultures she encountered had a profound influence on her ever-evolving artistic style which boldly used color and mixed media as well as her use of art to address global themes. 

Dedicated to improving the world through art, she used pieces like her 1979 series “Portraits of Cambodia” to raise awareness of societal issues. 

From the series "Portraits of Cambodia." by Pacita Abad.

Over time, Abad transitioned toward abstract work and pioneered a painting technique called trapunto (Italian for quilting). To achieve this style, she stuffed her canvases to create a sculptural effect and integrated culturally significant materials discovered during her travels, like shells and fabrics. 

Abad channeled a passion for public art into her 2003 project “Painted Bridge,” for which she covered Singapore’s 55-meter Alkaff Bridge with an explosion of 2,350 vibrantly colored circles.  It turned out to be her last work before she died from cancer in 2004.

Abad crafted over 5,000 pieces of art, and today her colorful legacy resonates in collections in over 70 countries.

Abad is quoted on her Brooklyn Museum profile as saying, “I have a social responsibility for my painting, to try to make our world a little better.”

Pacita Abad preparing an exhibition of her work.