Photographer Wawi Navarroza’s home-studio is free of clutter. This is intentional. The floors and walls are drained of color, washed with ivory. White sheets, crisp and pristine, are draped over furniture. Books are turned over, so that the uniform color of book pages faces the viewer and the myriad colors of their spines are hidden from sight. Looking around Wawi’s unit, one thing is clear: This woman loves her white. “My mind, as it is, is full of stuff. If I see a lot of colors, I might go berserk,” she tells Southern Living.
She points at a conception that most people have about how artists like to live in chaos. “White walls are a part of my life as an artist, whether in a gallery or a studio,” she says. “It’s a huge part of my aesthetic and my personality to keep everything streamlined. I’m either super clean or super messy; in between, life happens.”
While all the whiteness might seem cold and sterilized, Wawi makes sure to make her pad still feel homey with earthy tones and textures. She has succulents sitting on her tables, and a variety of potted plants on every surface she can put them on—even atop her piano. Also displayed in her loft are stories of her travels—baskets from Bukidnon and weaves from Mindoro and Zamboanga.
Looking back at what her unit looked like before she had fixed it up, she says, “It was pure, empty, and full of possibilities.” Today, her home knows no mess, no miscalculation—an abode of order when her mind is not.
Photos by Tammy David
Source: Marbbie Tagabucba for Southern Living, “The Everyday Sublime,” May 2015