...therefore I am: FRANK CAÑA'S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN AS MOTHER NATURE

By Arnel Mirasol

I know painters who didn't finish college but still went on to make indelible marks in the Philippine art scene. A notable example is Mauro Malang Santos - or simply, Malang. Malang's protege Franklin Caña Valencia would be another. Frank formally entered the world of serious painting when he joined the Saturday Group in 2001. Before that, he was at the pinnacle of his career in advertising working as design director and later on, department head, for J. Romero and Associates. Malang is the acknowledged "spiritual leader" of the Saturday Group, its guru - not because he is the oldest member, but because of his artistic achievements and stellar status in the Philippine art scene.

Malang, in turn, was one of Vicente Manansala's proteges. Manansala was that master of transparent cubism - who passed on to his followers his fascination with cubism.. These followers are Hugo Yonzon, Oscar Zalameda, Manny Baldemor, and Ang Kiukok, to name just the really famous ones. But their individual styles, even if from a common cubist wellspring diverged at some point, and have become styles distinctly identified with each individual artist. Although he'll be quick to assert that his work was just cubist-inspired (which is true in a way) Frank truly is a cubist - a fourth generation cubist, because of his penchant for segmenting his paintings into curves, crescents, and polyhedrons of different gradations and hues. But in all fairness to Frank, his adoption of the cubist idiom, is just coincidental. It was not Picasso, not Manansala, and not even Malang, who gave Frank an idea on what style to follow. His future painting style became etched in his mind very early in his life, even before he learned how to handle a paintbrush, when he happened to peer closely at marbles which he held against the sun and saw trapped inside metal crescents, twisted and straight, that glow and glitter like the patterned particles inside a kaleidoscope.

Although he arrived at his signature style through a path he himself blazed, Frank admits admiration for Malang and the watercolorist Frank Webb for their colors and design principles, and for Gustav Klimt for his theme or subject matter.

Frank studied at The University of Santo Tomas College of Architecture and Fine Arts, but failed to finish the course because of deficiencies in his Spanish subject and ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Course). Frank jokingly said that he ran away from the ROTC MPs (Military Police) because they were teaching him how to kill, when he felt deep inside that he is an artist, a creator - and not a warrior. Although he failed in the above mentioned subjects, Frank claimed that he got high grades in the so-called major or laboratory subjects, which is not hard to believe.

Frank's family was poor, that's why he was compelled early on to work. He accepted drawing jobs from his classmates and teachers when he was in grade school. He also accompanied his father on his rounds to peddle tinapa (smoked fish), and helped his elder sister in selling vegetables in their hometown of Calauag, Quezon. He also worked part time at his elder brother Magoo Valencia's art and sign shop where he was assigned the job of erasing the old letterings and drawings on materials they will reuse. He had also worked as contractual factory worker for a few months when he was in high school to earn money for his school uniform and notebooks. A not very promising start, I would say, for one who would later become a master painter.

In 1982, Frank left for Jeddah to take on the job of graphic designer. He worked in Jeddah for eleven years. His years there stood him in good stead when he returned to the country for good. He easily became art director for J. Romeo and Associates, was promoted to design director, and after years of notable work, to department head. Frank has had ten solo shows and have participated in more than 50 group art exhibits, many of them abroad. He had exhibited in the United States - in New York, New Jersey, and Arizona - and in Hongkong, Singapore, and Malaysia. He was Art Manila newspaper's Young Artist of the Year for 2002, and was a winner in the First Saudia Art Competition in Jeddah.

Frank entered two paintings for the Krusada sa Kalikasan exhibit of the Kapentura Art Group at the Artasia Gallery - Womanature@15 and Womanature@16. Both are masterful works, interpreting best the theme of the show, which is environmental degradation and its now anticipated regeneration. According to Frank, the naked woman in fetal pose in the painting Womanature@15 represents Mother Nature, who, as an ubiquitous entity, is present everywhere. Each tree trunk is a womb in which she gestates. Thus, each tree trunk cut is Mother Nature herself being cut and destroyed. But hope springs eternal as they say, for it always happen that from a cut tree trunk new leaves may grow heralding rebirth, while butterflies hover expecting the stirring of new flower buds.

Womanature @16, on the other hand, depicts the birthing of a sunlight-bathed Mother Nature, which happens every time a supposedly dead tree survives. This cyclical birth and rebirth process augurs well for our beloved Earth, because it could only mean that all is not lost. That despite the ravage and rapine inflicted on her by man, Mother Nature is resilient enough to withstand those, and emerge triumphant, vital, and strong, and stand guard forever over our forests and seas.

Frank met his future wife, Teresa Servida, in Jeddah. They are blessed with four boys, who Frank said are all artistically-gifted, being frequent winners in art competitions when they were young. But Frank is sad that they opted not to follow their father's artistic path, because they see it as a life of constant struggle to make ends meet. But I don't see that stereotype about "struggling and starving artists" true in Frank's case. Because if there is one artist who is on his way to fame and fortune (if ever he is not there yet), that would be no other than Malang's protege, Franklin Caña Valencia.