When Super Typhoon Odette battered the country last December, it sent some 400,000 people running for safety when it hit the country’s south-eastern islands.
The death toll from one of the strongest typhoons to enter the country claimed the lives of hundreds of people leaving several central provinces struggling with downed communications and power outages and pleading for food and water.
“Seeing the news [about Typhoon Rai] plastered on the TV screens of sunny Los Angeles, I felt so distant from the place I call home. Seeing the stark contrast between where I live now and where I grew up was glaring.”
crista quintos, la-based artist
According to the artist, this is what pushed her to create a climate change collage series with “hopes of not only raising funds for those in need but also raising awareness to those who are not directly affected by climate change emergencies to take part in the responsibility of reforming change.”
This series is Crista’s first collection available to the public and she looks forward to sharing more of her art in the coming months.
Prints and posters of Quintos’ collage series are available for purchase on artandmindstudios.com for 500PHP each with 100% of the profit from February 1 to February 15, 2022 going directly to victims of Typhoon Rai in collaboration with For Our Farmers Inc., Aksyon ng Kabataan Organization, and Lokal Lab.
Quintos added, “My hope is that people that purchase these prints leave with a token of appreciation for their generous donation as well as a reminder of the truths of climate change.” Donation channels to help Typhoon Rai victims are also open to in-kind donations through each of the organizations’ donation channels, which can be found on each of their social media channels.
Crista Quintos, who recently moved to Los Angeles in early 2021, always turned to art for solace. For Crista, art is her place of grounding when things around her seem out of control. Whether it’s through music, writing, creating art, or being a spectator, Crista always came home to art as her safe space.
Quintos’ art practice has become meditative for her. It has gotten her through many difficult times in her life and served as a place of solace when times are tough. Because of this, she started ART+MIND studios, a space for people to come together for the love of art, even if it’s just for the fun of it.