PAPELMISMO

By Arnel Mirasol

Benjie Torrado-Cabrera, Renato Habulan, Alfredo Liongoren, Arnel Mirasol, and Pinggot Zuleta will unveil at the Galerie Anna, PAPELMISMO- the sequel to their critically-acclaimed 2012 show, PAPELISMO. Joining the five this time are Thomas Daquioag, Neil Doloriicon, Alfredo Esquillo, Egai Talusan Fernandez, Emmanuel Garibay, Pablo Baen Santos, and Allison Wong David. Except for one or two, this roster of exhibit participants include names who belong to that group of brave souls, who dared buck the political and cultural establishment during the Marcos regime, and went on to make bigger names for themselves in the Philippine art scene. Collectively referred to as the Social Realists, they are firm advocates of the art of commitment and social change. 

This is the second in a series of shows mapped out by Renato Habulan for this group of artists intent on elevating the status of works on paper here. The first exhibit, Papelismo, seen at the Crucible Gallery, showcased works done by the artists in the course of their careers as editorial cartoonist, book illustrator, printmaker, and painters respectively. The present show, meanwhile, will present works created specifically for Papelmismo. While a few of the participants utilized segments from their old artworks, which they cut and recomposed to recreate new art pieces, most of the works are entirely new.

The medium is the content is the original thematic parameter laid down by Habulan for Papelmismo - which hinted at a rather conceptual approach - because this implies a manipulation of paper to turn it into the artwork itself. A few adhered closely to that dictum. Most did not. Nevertheless,  the process they used in fashioning their artworks differed much from what they've done in the past.

Two good examples of artworks that hewed closely to Habulan's dictum are BENJIE TORRADO-CABRERA's paper reliefs (above) depicting groaning mask-like faces breaking out of  surfaces littered with paper strips. Torrado-Cabrera is one of the Philippines' master maker of fine prints. He is not contented with just churning out the usual outputs of a printmaking workshop, like etchings, woodcut, and lithographs, to name a few. He had up the ante, in a manner of speaking, with his innovative printing technique spin-offs - like his sculptures of transparent flexi-glass cubes, for example, engraved with arabesques and other abstract patterns that he had exhibited a few years ago. Those are trailblazing works deserving of applause both from critics and artists alike.

THOMAS DAQUIOAG's sculptural piece - "Sugo" (above) - on the other hand, is made entirely of paper. It is free-standing and is a fusion, literally, of a giant fish-like form and a toy-like warplane. The work, Daquioag said, is a commentary on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Daquioag is a prize-winning painter who had recently added a Juror's Prize in the prestigious Philippine Art Awards to his list of achievements. He'd also done mural-sized paintings for the Co Tec Tai Medical Museum, one of which, the "Brain Drain", is an apt depiction of that disturbing (to some at least) phenomenon of health workers needing to leave for jobs abroad. With "Sugo," Daquioag trod on unfamiliar ground, so to speak, because it is a far cry from the oils and watercolors that he had already mastered years before.

RENATO HABULAN was a founding member of Kaisahan - the group of Social-Realist painters that "flourished" and gained renown during the Martial Law years. A Thirteen Artists Awardee, Habulan had had several solo exhibitions to his name. His solo show at the Hiraya Gallery in the early 1980s, where he displayed his signature work "Kagampan" was notable - it was a critical and commercial success, and earned him his niche as one of the stalwarts of the Social Realist School in the Philippines. Gathered in that show were Habulan's now iconic images of farm workers, industrial laborers with their machines or tools of production, and people who earned their living in the streets, like the itinerant peddlers.

Habulan had exhibited extensively abroad, most recently in Singapore, where he exhibited mixed-media assemblages, among others, that reveals his long-time fascination with the material manifestation of folk beliefs and religion hereabouts.The title of that show - which was actually a collaborative exhibit with Alfredo Esquillo - was "Semblance/Presence." For the present show, Habulan cut out images from his old drawings which he afterwards arranged in layers within frames. The resulting pieces (above), which are also assemblages really, are novel and stunning.

This series of exhibitions to assert the significance of paper in art making was Habulan's brainchild. This shows his single-minded approach in promoting whatever his advocacy is at the moment. That is integrity - and that coupled with his prodigious artistic talent are the reasons perhaps for his status as a most sought after artist here, and in Singapore.

EGAI TALUSAN-FERNANDEZ had began to earn fame for his hard-edged abstractions when the call to cast his lot with the "non-commercial" painters of dissent and protest beckoned. He heeded that call. It was a brave decision, but one that he doesn't regret to this day. Fernandez had achieved a lot working within the ambit of Social Realism. One of his monumental paintings, "Unfinished Painting of the Present," was acquired by the Singapore Art Museum. 

His 1997 show at the Art Center, SM Megamall - "Kinabukasan ng Kahapon (Future of the Past)" - which was analyzed minutely by Emmanuel Torres, had a most heroic impact. His own contribution to the celebration of the Philippine Centennial, the show unveiled for the first time his most heroic work then, "Landas ng Liwanag (Pathway of Light)." It was heroic, not only because of its theme (which is the uncrating of rifles intended for the Filipino revolutionaries), but more so because of its size ( 6 X 15 feet). 

Compare to that humongous work, Fernandez's piece for Papelmismo, "Hinubog ng Panahon" (above), would look very humble indeed. But size really doesn't matter here. What the present work lacked in terms of size is amply compensated for by its wit. "Hinubog ng Panahon" is also a composite of Fernandez's old works.  Fernandez confessed that the lace-like pattern and perforations at the bottom of the work was the handiwork of termites who did an interaction with him.- which would make the piece a true collaborative work indeed.

Although not really a member of the mainstream social realist group, Kaisahan, ARNEL MIRASOL was also an ardent proponent of social realism. In fact,his Best Entry winning piece in the First Metrobank Painting Competition in 1984, "Hungry Child Dissected," was a social realist painting through and through. Mirasol had also tried his hand at editorial cartooning in the late 1980s, for the We Forum Publications and People's Journal.

But it wasn't until he switched to picture book illustration that he had truly made his mark. His books on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm are comparable, someone say, with those being turned out by German illustrators. Someone even remarked that Mirasol is the Philippines" "own Maxfield Parrish." But feeling that he had already exhausted the possibilities of picture book illustration and had nothing more to add to it, Mirasol went back to serious painting. Where his fairy tale illustrations are rather miniaturist in scale, his current output of "pure" paintings were all large format.

One of Mirasol's piece for this show is a reproduction of a painting he did of a naked Marilyn Monroe, "Maria Lina Desnuda" (at left), on which gallery-goers will be invited to draw doodles, sign their names, and write comments pro or con the image. Mirasol calls this exercise his Graffiti Poster Project, because after the show, the poster which would now be suggestive of a collaborative work by Cy Twombly and Alberto Vargas,would be reproduced in multiple copies either by giclee or laserprint. The objective of this project is to determine the threshold beyond which the audience would consider a naked image of a woman - or a man for that matter - as already obscene.

The other participants in this show - Pablo Baen Santos, Alfredo Esquillo, Pinggot Zulueta, Neil Doloricon, Emmanuel Garibay, Allison Wong David, and Alfredo Liongoren - are also among the big names in the Philippine art scene. Most of them are committed social realists, who've contributed their bit in the struggle against Marcos' oxymoronic Democratic Authoritarianism.

PABLO BAEN SANTOS, founding chairman of Kaisahan, had already won critical recognition as early as the late 1970s. The art critic Larry Francia picked him out as one of Social Realism's more vigorous exponents, while Leo Benesa called him an artist of great promise.  Baen Santos showed in his early paintings a penchant for outlining his figures in heavy black lines that would evoke comparison with Roualt's paintings and stained-glass art. The similarity ends there - in those heavy black lines - because Baen Santos, in truth, claimed kinship not with Roualt and stained glass art but with the celebrated Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

The black outlines in Baen Santos recent works, which are murals mostly, are no longer there, and his color scheme of mostly earth tones are now replaced by a palette of loud colors highly reminiscent of pop art. His brushwork has become looser and haphazard, too, in the manner of the expressionists. A rather radical shift had occurred in Baen Santos' art. Although Baen Santos hasn't shed yet his commitment to social change, he had veered towards expressionism and pop art in terms of technique and form.

His latest mural dealing with the Martial Law period in Philippine history was commissioned from him by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association and the Araneta Center for their SiningSaysay Project. The fact that he was chosen to paint this particular episode in Philippine history suggests the preeminence and prestige he enjoyed within the movement.

ALFREDO ESQUILLO was all the rage in the1990s after winning a slew of awards from prestigious art competitions here and abroad. Esquillo was on a roll then. He won the First Prize in the 1993 Metrobank Young Painters' Annual. He followed that up with a bigger win (the biggest perhaps for any Filipino painter) at the1995 Asean Art Awards, where he bested rivals from all Asean countries to garner the first prize. He dropped three notches lower in the next edition of that competition when he just placed fourth, but that is still a triumph of sorts, because he was the only Filipino to place in that edition of the competition. Or maybe, the judges simply wanted to "spread the dough" around,and not pour everything upon the head of a single person even if he obviously towers above everyone else in terms of talent.

The title of his winning entry is "Ritwal" - an awesome hyper-realist mixed-media work that criticizes certain folk beliefs and practices. "Ritwal" is didactic, iconoclastic, and thick with subtle sarcasm, and gave us a foretaste of the theme that would continue to preoccupy Esquillo to this day. In 1997, Esquillo mounted his first solo,"Masa Kultura," at the Hiraya Gallery. The show was an unqualified critical and commercial success, earning Esquillo a lengthy rave review from no less than Emmanuel Torres.

PINGGOT ZULUETA was an editorial cartoonist for many years for Abante. In the 2012 group show "Papelismo," Zulueta exhibited for the first time about 40 of his best editorial cartoons, which became an instant hit with the gallery-goers. An eye-opener of sorts, that exhibition made people realized that Zulueta belonged to that rank of top and highly-touted political cartoonists working for different papers in the late1980s to the early 90s. Now, that period, which encompassed Cory Aquino's presidency, may be considered as the Golden Age of Political Cartooning in the Philippines because of the sheer number of talents working at the same time who turned out editorial cartoons that combined wry humor with a high level of artistry.

Zulueta became a New Zealand citizen after he and his family emigrated to that country. When a job opportunity as photographer with the Manila Bulletin presented itself, Zulueta returned to take on that job. Among the press photographers active now, Zulueta could be regarded as the first among the  more prominent ones. The reason for this is simple- Zulueta, aside from being very good with his camera is also a high-profile practitioner of serious painting. Before going into photography, and after his editorial cartooning phase, Zulueta actively painted and exhibited abroad- in Australia and the United States,among other countries.

Zulueta's collaborative exhibition with National Artist for Poetry Virgilio Almario was landmark. The novelty of that show gained much media mileage for the two. In that show ("Makakatulog Ka pa Kaya"), Zulueta displayed what looked like photo reproductions of street children and other denizens of the slums streaked with neon-colored lines, and bordered with multi-colored excerpts of Almario's poems. That exhibit revealed what Zulueta is up to these days - experimentation. Zulueta had also done a lot of abstracts lately, which are all on par with the abstracts of painters working exclusively in that idiom.

NEIL DOLORICON, was also an editorial cartoonist- for the Manila Times. He had a distinct cartooning style very similar to comics illustration. Like Zulueta, Doloricon was, as a political cartoonist, way up there among the best. In 1997, "Monumental," the pioneering exhibit of large format digital art was unveiled at the Megamall Art Center. Doloricon was part of that exhibit, where his piece was a digital collage entitled "Spoils."  Emmanuel Torres had this to say about his work:

"Equally puzzling...is Doloricon's 'Spoils,' in which surrealism, appropriation, and pop art intersect. The lower portion resembles a commercial for food and beverage, but the upper portion is an allegory of sorts,in which a glum female model is flanked by two men pawing her, one of whom  has the green head of an alligator. Somehow one gets the impression the artist intends to equate materialism and consumerism with concupiscence and greed."

We can gather from what Torres wrote that Doloriicon is also into mixing social advocacy with art like all of his associates in the social realist movement. His dislike for the power-hungry and the exploiters suited him well in that bastion of democratic militancy which is the University of the Philippines, where he teaches in its College of Fine Arts, and of which he had served as Dean.

EMMANUEL;GARIBAY is very much active in recent years in the gallery exhibition circuit, holding solo exhibitions left and right. Critic Amanda Watson of the South  China Morning Post wrote of Garibay:

"Emmanuel Garibay has combined figurative distortion with the ideology of social action. creating powerful images in his paintings. His works include strong expressions of Filipino spirituality....Garibay rejects colonial religious models which he feels create an identity crisis that prevents his people from assessing their situation from their own perspective."

It is no wonder that Garibay is with the social realists. He shares their ethos and impetus to art making. To them, Philippine history and folk spirituality are rich sources of thematic nuggets that they can ceaselessly mine. "Laong Laan,"  Garibay's 2009 solo show at the Ayala Museum would provide us with an example. That show revolved mainly around Jose Rizal the man and the mythic truths that have arisen about him. But the significance of this show lies mainly in one painting, "Wow Pilipinas," where Garibay widened the context of his subject. In this painting, we see Rizal leaping over eras and looming over a landscape that is the haunt of both rebels and Manny Pacquiao. Some would dispute this, but it seems that Garibay is saying that a direct line of heroic descent emanates from Rizal, to the rebels, to Manny Pacquiao.

ALLISON WONG DAVID is married to a Filipino. She studied Fine Arts in London. Previously based in Hong Kong, she has settled in the Philippines where she is relatively active in its art scene. She had a major solo show at the Bulwagang Juan Luna, the Cultural Center of the Philippines' main gallery, where she displayed artworks of different genres, like paintings, sculptures, and several others.

She has an ongoing show, entitled "Ether," at the Vargas Museum of mixed-media dodecahedronic sculptures. which are said to radiate psychic energy. Even though these pieces can be considered as avant-garde, its incorporation of certain facets of Eastern spiritual thought implies a going back, as it were, to an earlier time when men were more in tune not only with the four elements of earth, wind, fire, and water, but also with the fifth, which is ether.

ALFREDO LIONGOREN burst into prominence in the early 1970s, when the prestigious Asia Magazine featured him as an artist to watch. It was an early taste of fame because Liongoren was only in his twenties then. His works featured in that article were gestural abstractions, for which he seem to have a natural flair, because in one Art Association of the Philippines competition on the theme of "400 years of Christianity in the Philippines," he won first place for an abstract which he admitted to have finished in just one night. But Liongoren's skill doesn't stop at just creating abstracts; he is an adept watercolorist too.  His watercolors of still lifes and landscapes, with their muted colors and sure brushstrokes,would put many watercolorists working today to shame. Liongoren also has a knack for theater. He is a vibrant teller of anecdotes, who reinforces and punctuates each telling with frisky showmanship - which makes performance artists here, whose idea of performance is staying inert for minutes, look rather introverted and shy.

Although Liongoren was not with Kaisahan at its inception, he continues to advocate to this day the need for an overhaul of the country's power and social structure. In an article on Papelismo, Filipina Lippi wrote that Liongoren's frustration about inequalities and greed have been pushing him to create a "dagger-like art" - one that is easily understood by the masa - to intensify anger and indignation against the lack of delicadeza among powerful politicos who hold on to power while remaining inept at solving the country'c problems.

So,there - it is apparent that most of the exhibiting artists artist still harbor in their hearts the sentiments that linked them in the past. Social Realism forever! still seems to be their battle cry. But whether that is so, or not, will only be answered when they unveil their show.

PAPELMISMO opens at 6 pm on Thursday, December 11,  at the Galerie Anna. Galerie Anna is at the 4th floor,SM Megamall A,Mandaluyong City. Everyone is invited.

Shown above are the organizers of Papelismo': they are, from left, Arnel Mirasol, Pablo Baen Santos, Pinggot Zulueta, Renato Habulan, and Thomas Daquioag.

NUDITY IN ART

By Arnel Mirasol

Shown in above photo from left, Boy Yap, Tony Tejado's friend, Tony Tejado, myself, Rene Ricanor, and Albino Dancel. Not in photo is Jun Diaz who took the picture.

There were six of us, UST Fine Arts classmates, who went to Cubao for our first ever nude sketching session - me, Arsenio Isidro Yap, Antonio Tejado, Rene Ricanor, Albino Dancel, and Jun Diaz. The venue was a cozy bungalow in Cubao, whose foreigner owner was momentarily out of the house. The guy who ushered us in was Tony Tejado's friend. He worked as a boy in the house. I forgot his name, but he was the one who took care of getting the girls who would pose nude for us. The girls, aged 14 and 20, were dancers in a nearby cocktail lounge. I don't remember the exact year, but this could be in early 1974, when we were but a bunch of Fine Arts freshmen out to see for ourselves how it was to be face to face with girls willing to pose naked for us. Life sketching classes weren't offered to freshmen. We have to wait one or two years more before we can enroll in that class. That's why one of us - I don't remember who - came up with that bright idea of holding our own "extra-curricular nude sketching class".The sketching session didn't turned out well, because not one among us came out with a finished sketch. We were either truly still sketching neophytes, or were just plain awestruck by the beauties before us.

A female artist once remarked that she pities women nude models. For her, disrobing for a living, even before artists, is shameful. That would be true in many cases. The models we had who worked as bar dancers, especially the fourteen year old girl, were surely among the pathetic ones. But there are the lucky ones also, who earn big money for a job that would take just a few hours to accomplish. An artist friend, Frank Cruzet, who lives in Canada, even claimed that nude models there are a pampered lot. They are fetched  from their homes in a car, are made to pose nude for only a few hours, and then brought home again in the same car, with several hundred, or even a thousand, dollars in their pockets. Filipino artists, of course, cannot match the fees being paid by their Canadian counterparts, but I'm sure they are substantial enough,

Misconceptions abound about what goes on behind closed doors between artists and their nude models. I assure you that most of them are not true, especially if the sketching is being done by a group (below right). When artists sit in front of their easels, their concerns are narrowed down to a single all-encompassing objective, which is to translate into lines and colors the naked form they see before them. Libido issues are set aside. The only thing that matters is how to come out with a sketch that would compare favorably with those done by their fellows.

Nude painting adept Buds Convocar with model and finished artwork

But artists are humans too, and "aberrations" do occur. If the session is one-on-one, romantic ideas may come up. There was the well-publicized case of a painter who, overly aroused by the sight of his pubescent girl model, chucked off his sketching materials and proceeded instead to molest her. He was jailed for it - a not very positive outcome I would say for a painter who would have made his mark in the Philippine art scene had he not allowed his nether lascivious side to dominate him.

But that only prove that character is destiny, because this painter once took pride in styling himself as the "Father of Philippine Erotic Art". Living up to that tag, this painter had the temerity one time to gift himself with a kinky cake during a birthday celebration. This cake was adorned by a single lighted candle in the shape of a prick, which two rather reluctant children were prodded to blow.

That's not all. He also cooked up the idea of holding nude sketching sessions in a restaurant in Makati. This brought him into trouble with the alert citizens of the city. After receiving complaints from the moral guardians and church people, then Makati Mayor Nemesio Yabut, put his foot down, and ordered the "immoral activity" stopped. The said painter disregarded an unwritten rule which disallows kibitzers or onlookers in a room where a nude sketching session is taking place. That's the reason why I found it difficult to agree to suggestions by former classmates who are not painters, that we hold a nude sketching session with me as the only sketching artist. I also remember a story where a famous painter once talked to a female painter - a new recruit to their art group - who refused or was hesitant to sketch, because she was not yet confident of her sketching skills: He said that in their group, women can only do two things- they can either draw, or pose nude. The lady painter of course chose draw, and today, she is one of the revered masters of the female form in the Philippine art scene.

Birth of Venus by Boticelli

Venus of Urbino by Titian

Painters are celebrities all right. Many of them became famous for their paintings of female nudes. Botticelli, Titian, Francisco de Goya, and Edouard Manet, were prime examples. But the models for their paintings, who would have died unheard and unsung if they haven't posed nude, became famous too. Who would have remembered Simonetta Vespucci, the Duchess of Urbino, the Duchess of Alba, and Victorine Meurent, if they haven't modeled for the paintings The Birth of Venus, Venus of Urbino, La Maja Desnuda, and Olympia respectively?  There was also Gabrielle, or Ga, who worked as a bonne (maid) in the Renoir household. He was Pierre-Auguste Renoir's model for many of his paintings of  overly voluptuous female nudes (bottom picture).

La Maja Desnuda by Goya

Olympia by Manet

Why am I saying these? Well, I just want to further propagate the notion that nude modeling could be a respectable profession. No reason to be embarrassed by it. Celebrities have posed in the nude. There are two that easily came to mind. I saw in FHM Magazine the feature on erstwhile Pu3Ska vocalist Myra Ruaro (a.k.a. Skarlet), who posed nude for a group of painters. Another one was Myrna Castillo. I don't know if you remember that 1980s sexy star - but I first became aware of her when I read in a movie magazine an item about her posing nude for painter Jonahmar Salvosa. Myrna and Jonahmar were just starting then. That nude sketching session was the first in their series of stepping-stones to fame. Myrna Castillo's star may have dimmed for good, but many I'm sure could still recall the name. Especially Jonahmar (below) - who is still at it, creating sketches that would confirm his status as one of the Philippines' finest painters of female nudes.

MON VILLANUEVA'S FISH FIXATION

By Arnel Mirasol

Mon Villanueva at work

Don't be fooled by the beer bottle Mon Villanueva is holding. Mon is no bohemian. He is a devoted family man who considers his wife and daughter his treasures. Well, he may drink from time to time as most males do, but drinking is not the be all of his existence. For all we know, that Red Horse Beer bottle Mon is holding may not contain beer at all - but linseed oil or turpentine. Seriously now: Mon Villanueva also amazed me. Like Jojo Garcia, he is another fine arts classmate whom I pointedly ignored during our college days at the University of the East (UE). That's because he looked to me like another happy go lucky guy who's head was not in his studies.

Blue Period

Fishes of Eight

Anyhow (Grilled)

So, you can just imagine my surprise when news reached me that he won first prize in the 1994 Metrobank Young Painters Annual. My surprise, I must confess, was tinged with envy, because his prize money was fifty thousand pesos, while the prize I won in the first edition of that contest in 1984 was only ten thousand. I was further disappointed because he forgot to treat us, his old classmates, to even a few bottles of beer. Unlike me, who spent a whole day on gimmicks with Bert Falsis and Rolly Cruz - the guys who accompanied me to the bank when I had my cheque encashed. Mon's winning entry to the Metrobank competition, Nang Mahimbing si Mariang Makiling, Nanalanta ang mga Sakim is in oil. It depicts a crowd, a group of small-time loggers perhaps, who are ravaging a forest of leafless trees. It was a disturbing yet charming work - done when he was already a student at the Philippine Women's University, where he transferred when he left UE. Painted with much skill, and a rather obsessive attention to detail - that winning painting showed that the intervening years weren't wasted; that Mon, had perhaps, chucked off his non-conformist ways and had trodden instead the straight path towards the thorough honing of his craft.

He again surprised me several years later when he became a finalist in one Philip Morris painting competition, where his entry was done entirely in carved bamboo colored with oil paint. I wasn't much impressed with that work because it looked, with its garish colors, handicraft-y to me. But my rather low regard for his bamboo relief pieces was then. Now, Mon had already hurdled the barrier separating mere craft from fine art, and his recent pieces, all intricately done and in harmonious colors yet, look so pleasing to my eyes. Today, what I envy Mon for was his originality. I don't remember any fine artists who once used bamboos as medium. Mon's pieces are uniquely his own, while mine suffers from being an amalgam of my various influences. Mon is original, I am not.

We can see from samples of Mon's art above that he is very much fascinated by the fish motif. He was not the first one. Many painters before him have depicted fishes in their paintings, though not obsessively so - like Picasso, Magritte, and our very own Ang Kiukok and E.R. Tagle - and even me, for that matter (below right). But we were all sissies compared to Mon, because our paintings were accomplished by near-effortless flicks of the wrist and of the hand holding the brushes: while Mon's bamboo reliefs require brawn and finely-honed woodworking skills.

The Ichtus

Pablo Picasso at work

A painting by Rene Magritte

A painting by Ang Kiukok

A painting by E.R. Tagle

I

I can only surmise why Mon is obsessed with fishes. The fish - the ichtus (above left) - you see, was a symbol used by early Christians to identify themselves, That fact may make me conclude that Mon is probably a very devout Christian nowadays. Or, Mon perhaps might be a secret adherent of E.R. Tagle's Positivism dogma that posited fish to be a positivist or prosperity symbol. This conclusion is nearer to the truth, I must say, if we consider the painting Fishes of Eight, because the number 8 as we all know is considered a lucky number by the Chinese - and luck in all cultures is almost always tied up with material abundance and prosperity. But whatever his reasons are, all that Mon has to do if he wants luck to saunter after him like a frisky pet dog is to continue turning out masterly bamboo reliefs like he had been doing for several years now. And he need not limit himself to doing rehashes of fish compositions, ad nauseam, because any other image if painted - or in his case, carved- with great care and skill can only invite luck and praises from his admirers, which now include me.

Mon Villanueva and Zero

RIC ARTE'S SEARCH

By Arnel Mirasol

One need not take up Fine Arts in college if one wants to be a good painter. There are a few or even several painters, whose names escape me at present, who are big names now in the Philippine art scene even though they weren't fine arts students before. There was the National Artist Hernando R. Ocampo, who was a writer by profession, but went on to make his mark as an abstractionist with a very distinct style. There was also the architect Onib Olmedo and the pilot Lino Severino. Even though Olmedo and Severino are not, and may never be, National Artists, still, I count them among the most illustrious names in Philippine art history. Why? Because both of them have inspired and influenced many painters, who emulate their style and choice of subject matter. Many painters, including Marcel Antonio, who's National Artist material himself, have openly admired Olmedo's works. I can also add Elmer Borlongan (another National Artist material in my book), and perhaps his whole Salingpusa confreres, among Onib's admirers. Looking at Onib's painting (below), we can easily see who Elmer's source of inspiration might be for the bald humanity he is fond of depicting in his paintings.

Lino Severino, on the other hand, seems to be forgotten nowadays, because I haven't yet heard of any painter of vintage houses paying tribute to him as his primary influence. A pity - because Severino was a big name in the seventies. He was the one who popularized paintings of old houses, facades mostly, which he depicted in a manner that was almost abstract. I consider these paintings - his Vanishing Scene Series (below) - as still the best of this genre.

Ricarte Ico follows in their footsteps.Although his talent in art seems innate (his fascination with drawing began from his pre-school years), it wasn't Fine Arts that he took up in college. He majored in History at the CAP College Foundation, and also earned later on a Certificate in Teaching at the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State Univerity. He also has several units in architecture from Saint Louis College La Union tucked under his belt. Ricarte was born and raised in San Marcelino, Zambales, but is now based in Bauang, La Union. Ricarte learned the basics of painting from artists friends, and honed his skill further through self-study and constant practice. His knowledge in architectural drafting led Ricarte to explore the possibilities of integrating fine art and architecture in his paintings. Ricarte had already won four first prizes and one second prize in six on-the-spot competitions he joined. He had exhibited works in various venues in San Fernando City, La Union, and Metro Manila. I met Ricarte at facebook, and I've encountered him in person only once, at the Marikina Riverbanks, when we were both invited by Isagani Fuentes to join his group, Akwarelistas, in their plein-air painting session. A sociable fellow apparently, Ricarte, although residing in far-away La Union, readily confirmed his attendance, and was at the painting venue early. Ricarte is a member of several art groups, like the Artists Guild of La Union, and also of the Pinoy na Pinoy Visual Artists, Inc.(PPVAI), and the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) - which further attests to his outgoing ways. Ricarte is not a full-time painter yet - he is still working as an Administrative Assistant at the Department of Education's office in San Fernando, La Union.

Ricarte started painting in 1995. He began as a realist, as all painters should. I have reiterated in my writings that an artist should first master the rudiments of realist drawing and painting before venturing out to try his hand in abstraction and other modernist styles. And that was exactly what Ricarte did. Among his early works, his painting of sunflowers (above right), is the one I like best. Although pointillist at first glance, this painting's brushwork is really distinct from the original pointillist technique invented by Georges Seurat, and popularized here by Ibarra dela Rosa. Seurat's method was to juxtapose dots of different colors which were blended optically by the viewers' eyes to create from afar the illusory intermediate colors. Ibarra utilized the same principle, but his brushwork deviated somewhat from Seurat - instead of dots, he applied sausage-like curvilinear shapes to his canvases. Ricarte does things differently, however. He applied his dots of lighter hues more as finishing touches, to lighten areas in his paintings that need lightening. Whether true or not to the pointillist principle , Ricarte's paintings can be as charming as the paintings by the old masters of pointillism like Seurat, Pissarro, Signac, Sisley, and Ibarra. But Ricarte is not only a sociable fellow; he is also apparently a restless one. He could have rested on his pointillist laurels and content himself in churning out pointillist canvases for the rest of his painting career - like what Ibarra did. But, no - he chose to explore other styles, specifically cubism. His paintings in this genre are on the verge of becoming non-objective abstractions, especially the later ones of fishes , whose lines, both the straights and the curves , seem to be drawn using rulers and other mechanical drawing instruments. Perhaps, this is the fusion of fine art and architecture in his paintings that Ricarte spoke of. I wouldn't be surprised if Ricarte veered further towards the non-objective extreme of Constructivism and Suprematism, because Ricarte after all was an architectural draftsman once. He would I'm sure relish drawing the lines, squares, and arcs that define the paintings of the practitioners of those schools. At any rate, this search for new forms on the part of Ricarte should be applauded. The results justify his experimentation. Because his cubist paintings of fishes (and even of the playful Angry Birds below) will most likely win the nod of those critics, collectors, and painters, who consider the clinically-realistic academic paintings passe, trite , and uncreative.

Angry Birds of Paradise

JOPUNK ROCKS, JOPUNK ROLLS

By Arnel Mirasol

Jojo Garcia's love affair with jeepneys continues. Jeepneys as subject matter in painting have already been done to death, so to speak, by many Filipino painters in the past. Vicente Manansala, Antonio Austria, and Rock Drilon, to name only the most prominent, have dabbled with the jeepney motif at one time or another. There was also Junjie Versoza, Jojo's close friend in college, who made the repeating frontal images of jeepneys his signature style then. It was perhaps fascination with Junjie's paintings that prompted Jojo to do his own take on jeepney images. (below left, a painting by Junjie Verzosa)

Anyway, despite not being the pioneer in the field of jeepney painting, Jojo's substantial contribution to jeepney visual lore isn't diminished one bit. His jeepney paintings (samples below right) also fascinates - and amuses. The words and phrases written on the jeepneys' "headboards" (or visors?) and bumpers are very revealing not only of the milieu, but also of the very personality of the artist himself.

From words like Rock n' Roll, Walastik, Wild Street, Betrayed, Oioioi, Dead Ends, Bandits, Sex Pistols, Rakista, and Kankaloo, we can easily deduce that Jojo Garcia was a "punkista" from Caloocan, who have chucked off his old ways and found his true path in art. Jopunk rocks, not through music, but through his paintings. And he's also on a roll these days. Jojo excused himself from joining us on several occasions because he was up to his neck with painting jobs. His jeepney paintings are - pardon the cliche - selling like hotcakes. That's why he no longer has time to bond with us, his old comrades-in-art. But that's a positive development, I suppose; because I'm sure that when he gets to find the time to join us, he won't hesitate to pick up the tab and treat us all to the mother of all drinking binges.

Above photo, taken during my younger son Kai's first birthday celebration in 1988, shows from left, Rolly San Mateo, George Calma, JR Alonzo, and Jopunk Jojo Garcia himself.

DEAN OF WATERCOLORISTS

By Arnel Mirasol

In contrast to the guy I wrote about previously - my comrade-in-art Jojo Garcia - Jerry Dean was a very disciplined student. He diligently attended his classes, passed his plates on time, and abhors gallivanting and indulging in forbidden pleasures . He is one classmate whom I have not lost track of over the years. We are compadres - he is ninong (godfather) to my younger son, Kai. We were also partners once in a t-shirt printing business, and snorkeling buddies too.

Jerry worked for many years in animation, first as special effects, and later, as background artist. His stint in this field honed his skill in watercolor techniques. With the advent of the computer, he was compelled to learn Photoshop and other digital painting programs. Jerry had also worked abroad, in Vietnam and Singapore as animation background artist, and in Kuwait as muralist. Although the latter job paid well, he confessed that he'd rather not do murals again if the job includes doing ceiling paintings, which gave him a bad neck.

 His marriage opened for him another career - that of cake decorator. His wife, Franz, you see, owned a bakery, and she encouraged Jerry to enroll in a cake decoration course. Jerry did, and the knowledge he acquired he was able to put into good use when he went to work in Singapore as cake decorator. He was back after almost a years' stay in Singapore and is again indulging his true passion which is watercolor painting.

Rouge at Dawn

Jerry likes his watercolor paintings wet - that is, he loves applying watercolor paints or inks on wet paper, and lately, canvas surfaces. The effect he's aiming for is the one wherein the paint "explodes" or spreads out upon contact with the wet surface. (see above).

Early Journey

Unlike his old watercolors (right), Jerry's 2011 works, Self-Contentment and Fusion of Archetypes (below), are very much pared down, and very colorful too. This is all to the good, because his abstract treatment of part of the background gives the painting a more spontaneous and fluid quality, which are traits one always looks for in watercolors.

Self-Contentment

Fusion of Archetypes

When his love affair with watercolor will end Jerry can't answer as yet. He had implied that he hasn't exhausted all the possibilities of the medium. As things stand he is just into herons, flowers, and boats. So we can expect Jerry to devote several years more to watercolor if he intends to take on the challenge of depicting other subject matter.