MANILA, Philippines?When Jeannie Goulbourn sets her heart on something, it?s hard not to get infected by her passion and enthusiasm. New York artist Emily Cheng knows that only too well.

The two women have teamed up to produce a limited collection of shawls, barong tagalog and women?s apparel featuring Cheng?s art for Goulbourn?s Silk Cocoon line, to be launched Sept. 2 at the boutique?s Renaissance Hotel outpost in Makati City.

Goulbourn and Cheng met only four years ago through the painter?s uncle, SGV Group founder Washington SyCip. Goulbourn would eventually visit Cheng?s studio in New York, ?and she saw my paintings and her mind just went crazy! She saw the potential of making my art into shawls and all sorts of objects.?

That was a year and a half ago. On a trip to India together, they found that ?our [mutual] love for color and pattern was right on target,? Cheng says.

?Jeannie?s high-energy and passionate,? the artist says of her collaborator. ?She?s a dreamer and rabid businessperson. Those are rare qualities in combination. She has this vision, and it?s very energizing to work with her.?

Inspirations

For the collection, Cheng?s drawings are embroidered on piña silk barongs, shawls and assorted women?s clothing. They were taken from the artist?s book ?Chasing Clouds: A Decade of Studies,? a collection of her drawings from the last 10 years. The book, incidentally, will be launched Sept. 3 at PowerBooks Greenbelt. (Cheng will conduct a lecture at 6 p.m. on ?Reading Visually.?)

?The [inspirations] range from medieval tapestries to Renaissance paintings to Buddhist sutras... All of these, in combination with the work in my studio, were what lit [Jeannie?s] fire.?

Unaccustomed to working on a surface other than square canvas, Cheng found it exciting to translate her art in a longer format, like the shawls. The difference with doing wearable art, she says, is not just making an attractive image but also taking into account ?how it would look on a person.?

Compared to a typical shawl with an overall pattern that, to an observer?s eye, fades into a singular color as the wearer walks away, Cheng?s art-flecked shawls carry a single bold image in the middle of the back that spills to both ends, the same way Japanese samurai and warriors wore emblems on their backs.

?[They?re] very luxurious,? Cheng says. ?We didn?t take into account how much time the embroidery would take, or how much it would cost. We just wanted to make something that?s ?Wow!??

The salability of each piece was factored in only in terms of which colors would sell as backdrop of the patterns, she adds. The designs will be produced in different colorations but in limited numbers.

Beneficial

Cheng says she and Goulbourn may not share visions, but their distinct sensibilities have proven beneficial to their partnership.

?When you?re working with another person, [she] makes suggestions and those suggestions produce another idea. Your own thoughts in a vacuum can be enriched by someone else?s thoughts.?

For instance, while she thinks graphically, owing to her signature medium?oil on canvas?Goulbourn is into textures, so that Cheng?s embroidered art ended up with beadwork in some pieces.

?What Jeannie and I are doing is a dialogue. It?s back and forth growing together,? she says.

Goulbourn, who has collaborated with artists like Malang, Arturo Luz, Impy Pilapil, Gabby Barredo and Gus Albor, plans to further Silk Cocoon?s tie-up with Cheng by producing her drawings on bone china and leather goods.

The artist, who used to produce hand-painted costume jewelry for eight years to support herself as a struggling painter, isn?t objecting.

?I told Jeannie, you can do anything with my design, just don?t drag me into anything that involves production.?

Three shows

Cheng, whose last visit was two years ago when she had a show at Ayala Museum, is preparing for three shows next year: in Beijing, Shanghai and Italy. On Sept. 6, she?s off to Guangzhou for an exhibit. She?s recently took a crack at the Chinese art market, which she describes as ?very strong? and ?hot.?

?As a Chinese-American who works with images that are Chinese, it allows me to enter into the consciousness of the Chinese,? Cheng says. ?However, because I?m also bringing so many other sources, the Chinese get to look outside, too, so they?re embracing what I?m doing. When I started, it wasn?t such a global world. Now it?s becoming less important if you?re a ?Chinese artist? or a ?French artist.??