Roel G. Cabulang

Contemporary Artist

Roel G Cabulang, gifted with a keen eye for creativity, pursued his journey as an artist out of necessity: he needed to raise money to build a school library in his hometown Biliran Island, Philippines and a self-sustaining non-profit school in Kengoma, Uganda. 

An insatiable world traveler, he considers his life experiences and cultural immersions as part of his training ground as a self-taught artist. His interest in painting, poetry, and photography is focused on advocating to utilize art as a form of therapy and a tool for social responsibility. He resigned from his job as a nursing administrator at Stanford Medical Center in California in August 2022 to pursue a career as an artist. He acquired a 120-year old church in Buffalo, New York to transform it into an art space for the community. Now fully dedicated to share his creative voice to the world, Roel is all set to keep building schools and libraries in the most underserved communities utilizing his art as a force for the common good.

As a contemporary artist, whose advocacy is utilizing art for a good cause. Roel is unorthodox in his approach to art-making. His style is distinctly unconventional, to the point where he himself finds his creative output to the unpredictable and thought-provoking. Anchored in the belief that art has a healing power, Roel paints in the moment and integrates his life stories in every piece he creates.

Working mostly in acrylics and mixed media on canvas, Roel manipulates the materials to give his paintings a strong physical appearance. This presence – rendered by his innovative mixture of colors using a variety of techniques – often creates a visual dynamism. “I pour my heart out and energy into every work I create. More often than not, my tears literally fall onto the canvas and get embedded with the medium,” he says; which explains why his oeuvre articles a sense of intimacy and emotional lyricism. As part of his creative process, he writes a poem for every artwork he creates.