Mataji grew up watching her parents and her only brother, paint and sketch. In the Philippines, her father would let her meet artists in their home studios when she was about seven years old; and her mother would mentor her on sketching female faces. When she was in middle school, she attended an art summer workshop and took a six-month course in architectural drafting, that had components of fine arts, calligraphy etc. At that time, she would get lost for hours in the sweeping energy of creating something (oil painting) in her bedroom. She was thirteen, when all she wanted...more
