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Paintings and text by Maya Muñoz
Adapted from Racquet No. 20
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Tennis courts are like the ocean. Or a landscape. I grew up in California, so I love the vastness of the West Coast. I am drawn to empty places. A tennis court evokes the same emptiness as the ocean or uninterrupted land. It gives me solitude. A sense of peace.[vc_empty_space height="25px"][vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
Just before the pandemic, I moved back to Bicol, the province in the Philippines where I was born. Before that I lived in Manila. During lockdown I would pass the Albay Ligñon Hill Tennis Club during my morning walks. I didn’t think much of it then. Eventually the courts became a subject of mine.[vc_empty_space height="25px"][vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
[vc_empty_space height="25px"]Tennis used to be more common in the Philippines in the 1980s and ’90s. These days when I go to the courts I see mostly old men playing the game. I actually love it, but it’s a senior citizens’ sport here. The men play tennis and the women do ballroom dancing.[vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
[vc_empty_space height="25px"]I also like the crazy colors they paint the courts here. Purple like Barney the dinosaur. And pink: That one just gave me a headache.[vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
[vc_empty_space height="25px"]Aside from how it feels to be around empty courts—solitude, loneliness, and a certain...heaviness—I love the lines: the parameters and what they mean when you play the game.[vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
[vc_empty_space height="25px"]I love empty pools for the same reasons. They’re sad.[vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content"]
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[vc_empty_space height="25px"][vc_empty_space height="15px"]Maya Muñoz was born in 1972. She studied painting at San Jose State University. In 2003, she relocated back to the Philippines. She is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Award and has been exhibiting with The Drawing Room, Artinformal, and Silverlens Galleries since 2007. She lives and works in Bicol, Philippines. [vc_column width="1/6"][vc_tweetmeme share_via="racqetmagazine"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_facebook type="button_count"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_empty_space height="45px"][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column width="1/2"]
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