Alvin Gregorio uses his artistic practice to change his perspective and his life

Alvin Gregorio holds ube cheese pandesals — purple bread rolls filled with melted cheese — a nod to his Filipino heritage.

Artwork by Alvin Pagdanganan Gregorio

As the grandson of a Filipino World War II guerrilla sniper who fought alongside U.S. soldiers against Japanese forces, Alvin Pagdanganan Gregorio spent much of his life hating the Japanese military, which had invaded the Philippines and killed members of his family. Eventually, he said, he realized how exhausting that mindset was.

“Instead of expelling their ghosts, I want to enlist them. I think to myself, ‘They’re just teenagers too. Their government forced (them) to go to another country and do these things. They’re just working-class people, too.’ So, I started to think, instead of hating the Japanese that came to my village, those soldiers were just like my grandfather. They were sent to do something they couldn’t handle,” said Gregorio, now a CU Boulder associate professor of drawing and painting and the associate chair for art practices.

“Then I found in my practice that I could truly change my perspective, change my life. I don’t have to hate anymore. I like using art to think of a different way, like, ‘Hey, I genuinely want the offspring of those people to (be) happy and safe and peaceful.’” Gregorio’s mother and father immigrated to the United States after the former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, and, in April 1974, Gregorio was born in Los Angeles, California. The past is never far from him, though.

As an artist, Gregorio has pursued themes of immigration, violence and war, spirituality, religion and the disintegration of family, and the defense mechanisms people use to contain these things. Working in painting, drawing, audio, installation, sculpture and performance, Gregorio wrestles and seeks peace with these themes.

The work, he said, is not an escape but an acknowledgement: “I wanted (to) acknowledge that (we’re) living through a weird time,” he said. “One of the things I hate about right now is (that) I’m living in a time where I feel like there’s a lot of hate in the world, and it’s exhausting.” 

Art, he said, has the power to reframe and reshape, citing as an example his 2015 diagnosis with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, a rare autoimmune neurological disorder affecting the protective covering of peripheral nerves.

“Every Friday, Mary (Gregorio’s partner) gets my shots,” Gregorio said. “Three (shots), and it lasts three hours. And it’s the worst part of my week, and I’ve been doing it for 
10 years.”

Within art is the ability to change how he perceives this experience, he said. 

“I could just talk s*** on everything,” he said, admitting that it would probably be easier. Sharing his mother’s advice, he said, “If you’re not going to do it out of love, don’t do it. And growing up, I was like, ‘Are you trying to tell me that I have to be in a good mood about all the things that I have to do?’ And what I realized is that what I (think) she’s saying now that I look back, is if you could figure out how to find the good in it, it’s going to be better for everybody. You’ll enjoy it, the product will be better. That’s art, right? Trying to shift the perspective. Like, hey, you have the ability to shift your perspective . . . we have the power to reimagine the way we see things.”