Angela Silva was born in Iloilo, Philippines in 1955. She is a mixed-media artist and printmaker based in Talisay, Negros Occidental. 

Before retiring to the Philippines, she taught workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area on image transfers, portrait collage and artists books.

In her work, she explores identity, memory, time and place to create layers of nuance and meaning. She uses printmaking, mixed-media collage and image transfers to convey an “antiquarian sensibility.” She also makes artist books as a structural form to expand a given narrative across time.

Angela is also a cyanotype artist using a form of camera-less photography to produce a characteristic monochromatic blue image. She uses this antique process, which predates the film camera, and not black or white or color, to render the images timeless. “Blue is also the color of the ocean, of distance and longing.”

Cyanotype printing is one of the simplest alternative photographic processes. The light-sensitive emulsion using ferric salts is exposed to UV light to produce the characteristic monochromatic blue image. This antique process predates the film camera. In their commercial application, cyanotypes were used for architectural and engineering blueprints. This instructional installation honors Anna Atkins who self-published the first volumes of photographs made of botanical specimens in 1843. She placed plants and seaweeds on coated paper to create photograms.

She pioneered the combination of art, photography and science. The simple instructions rely on a combination of emulsion, paper, light and water. Add plants from your garden and elements of play and adventure and you can create art.