Cynthia Ayala Alexander

Born into a family of poet painters in the Philippines, books paints guitars and piano were common fixtures in the home. They were highly formidable and not very easy to please, but their devotion to art made an impression on my work ethic.

Though most of my works to date are in acrylic, I like mixed media and am enjoying the instant gratification of digital technology, where head-to-hand constructs come quickly, unencumbered by analog realities.

Cynthia Alexander is multi-awarded singer-songwriter and musician known for her prose poetry, alternate guitar tunings, captivating performances, and her ability to connect with her audience on a deeply personal level. Her songs—lyrically playful yet haunted by melancholy—explore the paradoxes of life and love, often mixing observable reality with a secret imagery.

Fiercely independent and never afraid to take artistic risks, Cynthia is regarded as among the brave, pioneering female artists by those most familiar with her work. Her music has been described as “wonderfully complex” and “reminiscent of the best of Joni Mitchell.”

Cynthia is also an arranger- producer, visual artist, and a long time vegetarian.

‘Equal parts Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and Joni Mitchell, Alexander’s verse is simultaneously casual and causal, hinting at a well-studied submissiveness to the value of ambiguous and replaceable meaning (“On the island of my senses,/ you have lost your shape./ The shadow of leaves fallen./ A bed of limbs in stalemate./ A crash of muted waves/ in diminishing dimension”—“U & I”; “A fragile pair,/ we are beyond compare:/ a breaking glass,/ a cactus chair”—“Malaya”). Alexander’s lyrics are reminiscent of Imagist poems, where clarity of expression is relayed through precise visual objects.’ – Aldus Santos,

From a compilation of his essays on Filipino rock over the last few years: \"Repeat while Fading: Rock Biographs