Art is literally everywhere - if you know where to look! Although creative works are quite subjective when it comes to their public appeal, presentation, and interpretation, some interesting projects do catch our quick attention.

Similar to the striking artworks featured here…

While enjoying a leisurely stroll around Davao City in the southern region of the Philippines, my wandering eyes were immediately lured by a set of street murals. These vividly stunning images were part of a local school program and were strategically painted on their institution’s boundary fences.

Their property’s outer walls would have appeared dull and barren without these colorful murals. And with the immense length of their off-white fence, it would have been an utterly boring environment.

However, with the incorporation of these visual masterpieces to the street scenario, walking on the public sidewalk while admiring this linear gallery of paintings was an enriching experience in itself. At least that was how I felt about it.

The street murals depicted here were split into 2 categories. The first one showcased the various tribes of the Philippines, mostly celebrating the ethnic groups from the island of Mindanao where Davao City is a distinguished geographical offspring. The second one highlighted a series of Philippine cultural dances from all over the country. With this interesting fusion of traditional costumes and their beloved physical movements to the musical flow, it was truly a sensual treat worth savoring.

Now, each spectacular mural on display had a name written in huge letters near them. And whether it describes the tribal ethnicity or the cultural dance, feel free to dive deeper about their history, technicalities, and related narratives on the Internet as there’s tons of information available there at your disposal . I won't be discussing them here.

On the other hand, I'll only be sharing my personal observations and insights from an onlooker’s perspective.

If there was one marvelous characteristic that was the common denominator for all these featured street murals, it was their incredibly vibrant exhibition of colors. All the shades and hues of the rainbow can be witnessed in their costumes as well as their supporting accessories.

Moreover, all the highlighted tribal clothes were complete with headgear, body covering, short or elongated pants, and stylish footwear. Although some of the tribes were barefooted, their overall attire still reflected their traditional motifs.

Other noticeable details on their tribal wear were the intricacy of the stitching patterns. It must have taken extensive time and effort to creatively tailor those works of embroidery. And with the inclusion of fashion jewelry either attached to their tribal clothes or worn separately, the resulting outcomes became masterpieces of vernacular fashion.

Moving forward to the cultural dances, it was indeed a captivating sight to indulge in! Some of the featured dance movements were new to me.

According to heritage chronicles passed down to present generations from my late ancestors, these choreographic motions most probably originated from forms of religious rituals, symbolic interpretations of the natural world, dance steps of gratitude to the supreme universe , or superstitious beliefs that became fully ingrained with the Filipino people over the years.

In fact, a few of the depicted cultural dances also had obvious traces of martial art influences, empowering the dance acts with distinctive movements together with their respective weapons of self-defense. It was an unexpected yet fascinating revelation for me.

Not only were the cultural dances on the wall murals educational, inspiring, and entertaining for the public viewers and touring passers-by like me, their accompanying costumes were outstanding and deserved to be praised. Some of their clothes were even comparable to the exquisite beauty of their tribal counterparts of fashion.

And of course, how could we ignore the brilliant brains, hard-working hands, and passionate hearts behind this creative endeavor? Many thanks to all those people involved for making planet Earth a much better home for humanity!

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