“I never foresaw the significance that year would make on my life. Unrelenting waves came at me from all directions, marooning me on the island. Though I was reluctant, it was my choice to live there. Batan is a place with real storms, calamities and elements that never ease. The residency’s walls became a refuge as well as a portal into a dimension I never realized could exist. It laid new depths to my dreams and incited unexpected passions, anger, and forgiveness. At the end of my stay, the house, and the act of painting saved me from a sleepy existence and allowed me to burgeon into a wakeful state of living.”