I celebrated my birthday last June. An occasion I decided to mark by coming out with this short narrative of my life. Don`t take the pompous title seriously, friends. I merely wanted to humor myself, to make me stand steadfast in my belief that what I`m doing with single-minded devotion for thirty years now is significant. Never mind if a very close relation consider me and my profession useless. But please read on- this piece is not an exercise in self-pity. On the contrary...
I was born and raised in the slums of Tondo: at the so-called Tondo Foreshore, that bit of land that was originally sea. Despite the place`s notoriety as breeding-ground for would-be toughies, I will always remember my boyhood years with fondness. I had so much fun then romping about the flooded streets, trying to catch tadpoles and small fishes with improvised nets. Even the fistfights I engaged in with boyhood adversaries now seem to me like exciting fun-filled games.
We weren`t exactly destitute then like many of our neighbors, because my father, Edmundo, was already working overseas as a marine engineer. That is why my siblings and I were all able to go to college. Our eldest, Esterlina, finished commerce at University of Santo Tomas (UST). My younger brother, Rodolfo, finished industrial engineering at the University of Manila, while Teresa, the youngest, finished nursing, also at UST. She is now a nurse in San Diego, California. We kids were lucky, because unlike our father, we don`t have to struggle hard for our education. He's originally from Cebu, and he came here to Manila with his parents to study. Being poor, my father had to work as a janitor and later on as a clerk at Feati University, where he finished high school and took up mechanical engineering. Although he reached only third year in engineering, my father managed, a few years after he got married, to get hired by an international shipping company as engine crew. Those were lax times, and crewing agencies then didn`t required diplomas from seaman applicants. He rose to the rank of chief engineer.
I was studious as a boy; I graduated with honors in grade school. I maintained my good grades in high school (USTHS), although they suffered a decline in my final year. I was distracted from my studies that time because I got saddled with loads of extra-curricular activities. Aside from heading our school`s art organization, I was also the chief artist of our yearbook and artist and Filipino editor of our literary magazine. Anyway, despite my failing to get any honors upon graduation, I still consider my years in high school as time well-spent. it was around that time that I really grew fond of books, not as required reading at school, but as a real fun way of spending my time. Buying books became a compulsion, a quite costly habit which resulted in my amassing a sizable collection.
Even before I started learning the alphabet, I was already teaching myself the rudiments of drawing. It was an innate obsession, a calling perhaps. When I was a kid, I never knew anyone who can draw, so nobody could have inspired or influenced me. I drew everyday, on any available surface, even on the wooden walls of our house. This so exasperated my mother, Regina, that from then on, she made it a point to always yield to my requests for art materials.
My father`s ambition for me was also his father`s ambition for him. He wanted me to become a lawyer. To his disappointment, I insisted on studying painting, a most impractical choice, really. I first took up fine arts at UST, but quit after my second year. I shifted to architecture, then tried engineering, and finally in my mid-twenties, I resumed, though failed again to finish, my art studies at the University of the East (UE).
I began working as a professional artist in 1981, when I got employed as political cartoonist for the newspaper, People`s Journal. At first, I did an editorial cartoon daily. But due perhaps to my rawness, I noticed as weeks went on that I`m being given fewer and fewer assignments. Since I`m being paid on a per piece basis, I thought it better to quit the job rather than go each day to the office with no assurance on income.After my short initial stint as political cartoonist, I decided to paint full-time after being inspired by a book on Dali. It was the declining years of the Marcos regime and many paintings being done and exhibited at that time were political in content. I rode the trend and painted social realist canvases, but with a surrealist twist. In 1984, I won the top prize in the First Metrobank Annual Painting Competition. It was a most prestigious competition then as it is at present.
When I got married in 1985, I worked briefly as an art gallery assistant at the Galeria delas Islas. Then in 1987, I returned to political cartooning with the We Forum Publications of Joe Burgos, the crusading journalist and staunch Marcos opponent. It was there that my skill in pen and ink drawing was honed. I also learned a lot about political cartooning from Mr. Burgos. He told me that the most witty cartoon is the one that is most visual, meaning, the lesser the text and captions, the better. So, that axiom became my guide in cartooning. I always strive to impart the message sans text and captions. I didn`t always succeed of course, but I`ve created through sheer persistence, several pieces that spoke eloquently of my message without saying it, so to speak.The time came when the paper ceased being a daily. Thus, I took on another job as educational textbook illustrator to make full use of my time. I started with Phoenix Publishing House, then Rex, Abiva and Bookmark. That was way back in 1988. Artworks for their textbooks were black and white line drawings. The job is quite tedious, but I needed to persevere. Being paid again on a per piece basis, I went for volume.
The highlight of my career in textbook illustration was the series of full-color cover art I did for Phoenix Publishing. It was while doing them that I developed the style that would make a good impression on publishers. When I approached Rex printing and Tahanan Books, two of several houses here currently engaged in picture book publishing, their publishers reacted favorably after leafing through my portfolio. The moment suitable manuscripts came along, I was offered the job of illustrating them. So far, I have finished illustrating the following books: TAMALES DAY; FIRST AROUND THE GLOBE-THE STORY OF ENRIQUE; THE ORIGIN OF THE FROG; THE BROTHERS WU AND THE GOOD-LUCK EEL; HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN- ONCE UPON A TIME and THE BROTHERS GRIMM- LONG AGO AND FAR-AWAY. The last book, a collection of the Brothers Grimm best-loved fairy tales, took the longest time in making. I spent around two years on it, agonizing and being elated in turn each time I started and finished a plate. And the result was satisfying. It pleased me; it pleased my publisher.
My first solo exhibit of fairy tale illustrations took place at the Crucible Gallery. It opened on September 8, 2001. Featured in the exhibit were the original illustrations for the book, HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN- ONCE UPON A TIME. The exhibit opening was very, very soft: no guests-of-honor, no ribbon-cutting, no cocktails. But there were sales. Of the eleven illustrations on show, nine were sold: no mean feat in these persistently lean times. Although I was disappointed that my show was completely ignored by art writers here, the flattering comments of the ordinary gallery-goers lifted my spirit. Among the flurry of praises heaped my way, none flattered me more than someone`s remark that I was perhaps the Philippines` "own Maxfield Parrish".
My second solo show at the Crucible featured not only the illustrations for the book, THE BROTHERS GRIMM- LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY, but also a suite of paintings belonging to my machismo series. I guess I can adjudge this show more successful than the first, because aside from selling several artworks, the show also got noticed by the art critic, Constantino Tejero. His feature on me appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 25, 2007. A day I expected would be rather dismal, because it was my birthday, and I`m again impecunious. You can just imagine my surprise and elation upon seeing in the PDI`s art news pages his review of my show. I was so excited that I immediately rushed out of the house to buy several copies more of the paper.
Before starting work on ONCE UPON A TIME, I considered my illustrations for the books, THE ORIGIN OF THE FROG and THE BROTHERS WU AND THE GOOD-LUCK EEL as the apex of my achievement as illustrator. I have reason to because both of these books won recognition abroad; The ORIGIN OF THE FROG was a runner-up in the 2000 Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustration in Tokyo, while the excellence of my illustrations for the BROTHERS WU AND THE GOOD-LUCK EEL landed me in the 2002 Honour List of the International Board on Books for Young People, based in Basel, Switzerland. But after seeing the illustrations of Gennady Spirin, Wayne Anderson and James Christensen in the books lent to me by my publisher Reni Roxas, my attitude changed. The truth that the quality of my works are still way below the world`s standard became evident to me. And my ego got deflated.
I still live in Tondo with my wife, Carina, and two sons. My sons, Bahgee and Kai both finished business courses and are now gainfully employed. Although they showed flair for art making when they were kids, I didn`t encouraged them much. Having known firsthand the struggle and deprivation that an artist has to go through in life, I dissuaded them from taking up fine arts. But of course, if they really insisted on pursuing an art career, well, fine, I`ll give them my blessing. Happily, to my relief, they didn`t. They seem more intent on getting rich. An attitude I approve of very much, because perhaps, this poor old papa now have reason to expect a comfortable old age, courtesy of the two.
(Posted above is a clipping of Constantino Tejero's review of my second solo exhibit at the Crucible Gallery, which was featured in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's June 25 issue)
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