Slice of life artwork dedicated to Larry Alcala

August 18, 2022

Lauro “Larry” Alcala was a comic strip artist who illustrated “Slice of Life” artworks that featured the lives and events of FIlipinos. “Slice of life” refers to the everyday moments or events in people’s lives. A simple portrayal of this is the infamous “lo-fi anime girl studying” graphic popularized on YouTube. Slice of life can also be applied to illustrations of entire communities living their lives on any given day.

Years before the publishing of Where’s Waldo, Alcala was already drawing large crowds of everyday people in his “Slice of Life” series in the 1980s, portraying himself hidden among them in his artwork.

Slice of Life by Larry Alcala from National Museum Philippines Facebook — Slice of Life “Barrio Wedding” in 1985, by Larry Alcala, from the National Museum Philippines Facebook.

Inspired by his work, I applied a slice of life style to art I had made for the Department of Education (DepED) and World Vision Philippines for this year’s Brigada Eskwela. Brigada Eskwela or National Schools Maintenance Week is the DepED’s annual effort to keep their schools clean and maintained. It encourages local communities and parents to volunteer time for minor repairs on schools, getting them ready for the next school year.

A Brigada Eskwela poster I illustrated for DepED and World Vision Philippines. The sign loosely translates to, “Responding to the challenge of a safe return to school.” The talk bubbles say, “A healthy body and a clean environment…” and “…is what we can achieve as a community.”

In the art I made a simple school with teachers and students banding together for Brigada Eskwela. They are cleaning, repairing, and painting a school slowly dilapidated after a long period of non-use during the pandemic.

Another piece of artwork I made depicting a simple “slice of life” was in this project for the Coalition of Services for the Elderly or COSE. They needed an illustration showing older people or senior citizens interacting with community members in their own neighborhood, while promoting the need for a Universal Social Pension in the country. I was asked to try to make the community as diverse as possible. It’s definitely my dream neighborhood.

Universal Social Pension neighborhood slice of life for Coalition of Services for the Elderly or COSE — Universal Social Pension neighborhood “slice of life” for Coalition of Services for the Elderly or COSE.

I had made a simpler version of this sometime before this project, again with COSE. It was a smaller community gathering around the quintessential and ubiquitous Philippine mode of transportation: the jeepney.

Universal Social Pension Jeepney for Coalition of Services for the Elderly or COSE.

Instead of putting myself in the artwork, I decided to put a depiction of my mom in the COSE works. You can see her sitting in the wheel chair. She passed away in 2018 after a long arduous life living after a debilitating stroke.

My mom and I one Christmas in mama’s home province of Bohol. — My mom and I during Christmas in Bohol.

My mom in my art — Depictions of my mom in my art.

It was the staff at COSE who told me that my artwork reminded them of Larry Alcala’s work, so I have been enjoying his art on the internet ever since. I continue to apply the slice of life theme while gaining inspiration from his art moving forward.

Larry Alcala’s comic strips and artworks has made people laugh and reflect all throughout his 50 years of illustrating. He created over 500 characters and 20 comic strips during this time.

He was born on August 18, 1926, and passed away on June 24, 2002, in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, at 75. He was declared a National Artist for Visual Arts in 2018.

“Alcala’s most iconic work, Slice of Life, not only made for decades long of widely circulated images of Filipino everyday life, it also symbolically became an experiential way for his followers to find a sense of self in the midst of an often cacophonic, raucous and at odds environment that Filipinos found themselves amidst.”
–National Museum of the Philippines

Update: Latest “slice of life” art

Paskong pinoy Christmas illustration scene inspired by Larry Alcala by Filipeanut aka Albert Balbutin — Paskong pinoy Christmas illustration scene inspired by Larry Alcala’s “slice of life” art.

Learn about my latest artwork inspired from Larry Alcala’s “slice of life” art. This illustration was made for a client requesting art highlighting a Christmas scene in the Philippines, or “Paskong Pinoy” (Filipino Christmas). See it here.