Mek Yambao’s studio is a room in their family home that the afternoon sun hits just right. It was once a guest bedroom, later on a library for her lawyer sister, but it seems like it was always meant to be a artist’s studio, with the sunlight casting everything in the room in a golden glow.

This is the room where Mek whiles away most of her hours. She starts her day with the usual rituals: stretches, coffee, maybe breakfast. She spends time with her dogs. But once she enters her studio, it’s time to work.

Inside, there are peanut M&Ms and can of toxic paint (consequently, the poodles aren’t allowed in), blank wood panels, a french easel, a chocolate box filled with paint tubes, bottles of oil, half-filled sketchbooks, the skull of an unknown animal and a bunch of sage.

As it turns out, an artist’s life is equal measures romantic and tedious. Mek gushes as much about ideas for new work as she does about clearing her email inbox.

“It’s not that glamorous,” she says. “Like ‘oh you just probably stay in your studio all day waiting for inspiration,’ I’m like, ‘no. I have to do stuff.’” she laughs.

She starts her work day by writing in a journal – “just to get everything cleared in my head.” Then she sits at her computer and does what most working professionals do – she responds to emails, schedules social media posts, looks for news and updates on residencies and grants.

After the admin work is out of the way, Mek gets her hands dirty. Depending on what she’s working on, that could mean preparing canvases (she uses wood panels about as tall as a young child, which means it takes almost an entire day outdoors for her to cover them in polyurethane and paint the edges), laying out paints on her paper palettes, doing sketches and studies (which means sketching or painting a subject over and over again before she transfers them onto a bigger panel), or doing research on concepts she has in mind.

When she paints, she usually starts when the sun has gone down – and goes on painting ’til 4 or 5 in the morning.

Completing a piece is a long and tedious process – and as Mek shares, it’s hardly ever a continuous flow of ideas and creativity. She often gets stuck, not knowing what to do next, or how to proceed. Sometimes she even regrets starting a piece or choosing to do a difficult subject.

In fact, her favorite part of the process is “when it’s done.”

“Sometimes when I’m in the middle of it, it’s like ‘tangina, why am I doing this?’ Like a lot of times it’s like that, especially when I choose a difficult subject… but once it’s done, I feel good about seeing it,” she said.

Her daily schedule isn’t cut and dried, much like her professional life. Opportunities are never guaranteed, and a living isn’t always easy to come by. But for Mek, there are no other options. She doesn’t see herself doing anything else.

“Since I was a kid I really wanted to be an artist, this was my childhood dream. And ang tigas ng ulo ko (I’m really hard-headed) so I’m still here,” she says. “I’m just glad my parents didn’t force me to take whatever they wanted. They’re chill like that. Even if a lot of times they don’t understand, like ‘what are you doing?’ they’re like ‘sige just let her do it.’”

As much as people romanticize artists, Mek says one needs to be gritty to survive in the industry.

“You need to be tough, she said. “And you need to be decided that this is what you want to do, be all in about it.” – Rappler.com