For my sophomore slump holiday card effort, I ricocheted from the bondage-heavy shock-jock scene of the first to a more somber and contemplative pose as seen below. As soon as the first card set up an element of expectation for the follow-up, I knew I’d have to do something entirely different rather than attempting something to top the untoppable. Cue this calm shot from a trip to the green hills of San Diego, as captured by my brother.
We were there for a family wedding, and that was the trip I first came out to my brother as gay. (He thought I was doing it to be trendy, and I don’t think I entirely convinced him it was true, but it did end up sticking.) Madonna’s ‘Evita’ was very much my influence and obsession at the time, so I quoted her on it via Eva Peron: “So share my glory, so share my coffin.” Once again, it sparked whispers of suicide, which were slightly more understandable given the quote, and at that stage of my life I fervently believed that whispers of anything were better than no whispers at all.
This one remains a favorite in the entire canon of cards, mostly because it’s such an incongruous setting and background. I still remember that sunny day in San Diego – my brother and I were hanging out and he showed me to a vintage shop where I picked up the feather boa used in the featured shot above. Then we walked about in this rolling grass field, an impossibly beautiful day in late November for the Ilagan brothers, who had come from the already-frigid and wintry Northeast. It lent this holiday card an element of warmth that was missing from the first year. It also set the stage for the possibility of surprise through understatement – a trick that would come to define ways out of other creative conundrums. Every time the world expected me to zig, I would choose to zag. Coupled with the first card I did, this one was my way of showing my yang after having already given up my yin.
