Labor of Love
Krizel Hidalgo, aka Tita Keks, has been practicing the demanding art of sign painting for nearly six years. Today, she’s redefining her relationship with the craft, come joy and burnout.
Words Khyne Palumar
Photos courtesy of Neocha
April 14, 2024
"In a way, sign painting really is manual labor,” says Krizel Hidalgo, the artist better known as Tita Keks. This August marks her sixth year of hand painting vibrant art pieces on all manner of surfaces: glass window storefronts, food trucks, hot rod motorcycles, wood slab cut-outs, even a refrigerator.
The demanding process takes energy and time, Hidalgo tells Art+ Magazine.
“It’s 90% preparation and 10% actual painting. Part dun yung kailangan mo mag-lagari, mag-liha, at mag-masilya.” (Part of it is you’ll need to saw, sand, and putty.) The 28-year-old artist rarely requires an assistant, approaching the process with power tools, a DIY attitude, and an appetite to create and learn.
During her first year on the job, a client needed gold-leaf gilding. Hidalgo lost sleep learning how to stick thin sheets of metal on a surface right after taking the gig. “OK naman. It’s still up in their shop more than five years later,” she says with a laugh. Hidalgo also took eight hours to complete her first glass storefront, working against gravity and dripping paint on a smooth vertical surface just to write the words “Coffee Shop.” Today, each project is slightly more complicated, but Hidalgo is far more experienced. It takes her between three hours and three days to complete a job, depending on the size and ambition of the commissions.
Tita Keks’ slogan reads, “No job 2 big. No idea 2 crazy” for a reason. “When I discovered sign paint- ing, sobrang dami kong gustong i-try, explore, at experience. There are so many subcultures, styles, and techniques within the medium. Jeepney sign painting is just one aspect of it,” Hidalgo says. While Tita Keks’ art does hark back to the gaudy exterior of jeepneys, sorbetes carts, and old film posters—ubiquitous traditional sign-painting fare in the Philippines; much of her style is rooted in her love for vintage and kustom kulture. The American art movement celebrates ‘50s and ‘60s era vehicles, styles, and fashion from punk, mod, and rockabilly, to tattoo art, painted hot rods, and pin-up girls.
