A lifestyle

"Giving is a lifestyle." - Inspirational Quotes found in Twitter

I saw this old watercolor work, entitled "Tres Marias", that was first exhibited at the Baguio City Museum at a Baguio Aquarelle Society show, at the fireplace of Auring and Des Bautista's home on Christmas Eve. It felt like running into an old chum. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

Very little of my body of artworks (ahem!) are left with me or my family. They're mostly in the homes or friends, other family members, including in-laws and cousins who've hosted us abroad, and a few indulging collectors, mainly friends, too.

Whenever I have an exhibition, whatever is left unsold is given away without regret as gift for birthdays, weddings, thank you for favors or just for the abiding friendship. These paintings are also handy to be around when there's a call for fund-raising for ailing colleagues or for relief/rehabilitation during disasters.

Nothing can replace something made by one's hands. A reminder for me to resume painting in 2015.

Arlene Esperida and her ATC movement

Arlene Esperida is a Japan-based artist who I met at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) conference in Manila in '03, if my memory is having a good day. Somewhere in our house in Baguio is a painting of hers, mainly in orange, with biomorphic forms.

Since then, we rediscovered one another when I still had a Facebook account. Then we embarked on this small project of helping democratize art through artist trading cards or ATCs. I started one with the Baguio Aquarelle Society in '09 or thereabouts (excuse the occasional lapse in factual or episodic memory; rest assured the associative or long memory is intact). For a time I was using these cards as my business cards, although more pragmatic friends would say, how come I have to make these one-of-a-kind cards, usually practice paintings in small sizes before I enlarge them, into business cards? In short, impractical, probably they're gauging the effort in terms of use of paint, images, etc.

Well, visual artists and writers make heroic choices every day, that's all I can say. Meanwhile, Arlene and I have corresponded by postal mail; so have Gladys Lyn "Nini" Teves Lapuz and I in the same fashion off and on for many years now.

Meanwhile, I've rid myself of the collecting bug but not yet in terms of ATCs. They're defined by this site http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Artist-Trading-Cards as having begun "in the tradition of business cards, but with a personal, artistic twist. Most ATCs are created on paper, but they may also be any other medium that can be worked in a suitable size. ATCs are traditionally the size of baseball cards and other trading cards. They're a fun way to exchange your own one-of-a-kind artistic flair with other artists you meet. You can also use them as business cards."

I am sharing part of my loot (a couple that my former classmate Potchie Lazaro swapped with my works ended up with Jessica Zafra--I knew she'd like his kapre and tikbalang). I encourage art students, or anyone interested in reviving "snail mail", to put more fun into something handmade. We all spend much too much time in front of our laptops and Netbooks (unwittingly, we expose ourselves to these machines' radiation, too). So here's to ATCs and how they've revived art in small sizes, penmanship, trips to the post office, among other heroic everyday choices.

The actual sizes of these ATCs are sometimes even smaller than the images below. Thank you, Arlene, Jenny Cariño, Norman Chow, Toottee Chanco-Pacis, Nini Lapuz, Sinag de Leon and other fellow swappers and pen pals.

 

Aquarelle artists of Baguio City

Opens tomorrow, Feb. 2, at  5 p.m. at the lobby of the Forest Lodge of Camp John Hay, Baguio City, and runs until April this year

Two shows, one city

The renewed, rejuvenated Baguio Aquarelle Society, some of whose members are shown above, still has an ongoing exhibition of watercolors at the lobby of Forest Lodge (formerly known as John Hay Suites), Camp John Hay, until mid-January 2013. Weekend visitors are enjoined to drop by and view the watercolorists' personal vision of Baguio. Also lined up is "Ragsak," a celebratory exhibit by the same group. It opens Nov. 12 at the lobby of the Supreme Hotel Convention Plaza on Magsaysay Ave., Baguio City. "Ragsak" will run until Dec. 2. In photo are (from left): Norman Chow, the blogger, Toottee Pacis, Edna Guerrero, Lira Maranan,  Pia Mondiguing, Luchie Maranan, Merci Javier Dulawan, Baboo Mondoñedo, Patric Palasi, Roland Bay-an and Lilian Oliva. Not in photo are Fara Manuel and Danielle Palasi. Photo by EV ESPIRITU

Shameless self-advertising

Currently up on exhibit at Forest Lodge (formerly John Hay Suites) at Camp John Hay in Baguio City are these two paintings by a struggling, but not starving, painter. These are part of the Baguio Aquarelle Society's group show, "Aquarelle."

Other works on exhibit are those by BAS moving spirit Baboo Mondoñedo, who helped revive the moribund group and brought in new members, Roland Bay-an, Norman Chow, Merci Javier Dulawan, Edna Guerrero,  Fara Manuel,  daughter and mother Lira and Luchie Maranan,  Pia Mondiguing, Lilian Oliva, Toottee Chanco Pacis, daughter and father Danielle and Patric Palasi. Baboo, an active watercolorist, also has a current solo show at Alliance Francaise on Reposo street in Makati City.

If the subjects of these works look familiar, the painter admits joyfully that yes, her grand-daughter is an unending source of inspiration for poetry and painting. No better muse than she. Her elders will have a lot to tell her about how a certain adult has turned her into an object of scrutiny. And yes, the titles are inspired by the book the grandmother reads aloud to her.And yes, yes, yes, grandma doesn't mind comparisons to Matisse. Okay, enough already!

Busy Baby Comes and Goes," watercolor and watercolor pencil on Canson paper, 12" x 16".

"Busy Baby Watches Wind Blow," watercolor and watercolor pencil on Canson paper, 12" x 16".

Aquarelle redux

After a two-year respite, the Baguio Aquarelle Society returns, rested and revived, and our numbers have increased. At this coming show, the 14 participating artists are: Roland Bay-an, Norman Chow, Merci Javier Dulawan, Edna Guerrero,  Fara Manuel, Lira and Luchie Maranan, Baboo Mondoñedo, Pia Mondiguing, Lilian Oliva, Toottee Chanco Pacis, Danielle and Patric Palasi, and this blogger.

The viewing public is invited.

Water Prevails in Season of Drought

Watercolors, acrylics, gouache, watercolor pencils, ink—any medium that requires interacting with water was acceptable at the recent plein air painting contest, “Pine and Bamboo, Bamboo and Pine,” at the beautiful Pinsao Ecological Sanctuary in Pinsao Proper, Baguio City. (Go to Tam-awan Arts Village and book a walking trip through giant bamboo and pine groves with an eco guide.)

Coming up is an exhibition of the prize-winning works together with the latest explorations of water media on paper by the hard-working, women-dominated Baguio Aquarelle Society.

The exhibition component of “Pine and Bamboo, Bamboo and Pine” opens on March 6 at the Baguio-Mountain Province Museum on Gov. Pack Road, Baguio City at 4 p.m.

Thank you to our sponsors: Philex Mining, Benguet Electric Cooperative, Smart Telecom, Claudine M. Fernandez, Joseph Server Jr.is, Des and Auring Bautista, Joy Buensalido, and Sizzling Plate’s Edna and Mike Anton.

My personal favorite among the entries is ex-schoolmate Kitzel Cotiw-an’s acrylic on canvas. Somehow I was reminded of Kandinsky before he turned fully abstract. There is music in those faces and bamboo halves.

Photo shows Kizel’s painting, which won the Aquarelle special prize. (Photo by LAARNI ILAGAN)

Pine & Bamboo, Bamboo & Pine

The idea of a bonding activity for the members of the two-year-old Baguio Aquarelle Society came from our mentor Norman Chow. A picnic on the forested floor surrounding Baboo Mondonedo's residence was suggested to be followed by a plein air painting session. Before we knew it, the idea took a life of its own.

Thus we came up with "Pine & Bamboo, Bamboo & Pine," the first on-the-spot water media painting competition to mark the Ibaloi Centennial. Scheduled on Feb. 20, Saturday, starting as early as 8:30 and ending promptly at 4 p.m., the event at 308 Piraso Road, Tam-awan, Pinsao Proper, Baguio City, is sponsored by the Baguio Aquarelle Society and the Cordillera News Agency.

Our aim is to raise awareness of the Cordillera's precious natural heritage, trees and the indigenous people's culture being the most prominent. The title of the contest was inspired by a nature poem by Basho, a Japanese poet.

The contest is divided into two categories: professional (for those who have had at least one solo visual arts exhibition) and amateur (students, hobbyists and tourists). At stake are cash prizes (first, second and third for each category) and a chance to exhibit winning works at the Baguio-Mountain Province Museum on Gov. Pack Road in time for Earth Day.

Participants must register at the main house on the day of the contest so they can choose a spot where they can comfortably settle for the day in the forested area and garden. Bring your own materials (paints, paper, brushes, easel, rags, water container). We will provide some stools and tables apart from the picnic lunch.

The artist is encouraged to explore his/her best in presenting and conceptualizing his/her entry using any water-based media(watercolors, watercolor pencils, ink, acrylic). Through this contest, the organizers hope to see artists' vision and interpretation of Baguio's true resources.

The participant can choose any style: realistic, stylized (distorted figure), representational cubism, abstract, purely non-representational, no-recognizable figures and objects but suggestive of the theme.

The competition is open to all, Filipinos and foreign residents/visitors alike, age 12 years old (by Feb 20, 2010) and above. Participants can work on as many pieces as they can but can only submit one entry.

There is no registration fee.

Minimum size is 12" x 16", horizontal or vertical.

The media acceptable are acrylic on canvas, watercolor or other water media on paper. Entry using collage, decoupage, assemblage or use of non-pigment based materials like board, plastic, metal, etc. IS NOT allowed. The entry must hang on a wall to qualify. Appropriate support and/or equivalent devices should be provided to ensure the proper hanging of the artwork (ready for hanging). For watercolor entries, any watercolor paper is allowed, except illustration board.

The entry must have been painted on the spot and finished within the time allotted for the contest. We will go around the premises and see to the participants' needs. All entries must be in and must be signed at the back of the paper or canvas by 4 p.m. It must also be properly labeled at the back: Artist (name, address and contact numbers), Title of the work, Medium, Size, Year and Price.

All participants must be responsible for their entries. We will not pick up or transport any artwork to or from any point of origin.

What to Bring:

Photocopy of one valid ID (for age verification). The only acceptable IDs are: current school ID, PRC License, driver’s license, company ID, copy of passport, postal ID, SSS ID, GSIS-E-card, senior citizen’s ID, voter’s ID, NBI/police clearance.

STRICTLY NO SMOKING indoors or outdoors. Photo shows Baboo's still life with bamboo

The Waters of September & the Aquarelles

The boys, as we call Roland Bay-an, Norman Chow and Patric Palasi, went down to Manila on the evening of Sept. 25 , bringing with them in Tam-awan Village’s old Volks Combi large-size framed watercolors (minimum size of 18” x 24”) for the Sept. 26 opening of “Baguio,” the first Metro Manila show of the Baguio Aquarelle Society (BAS). Before noon, they had taken down the previous works hanging on the French Corner’s walls and installed the new watercolors.

Meanwhile, the other members of the year-old group were on the road that fateful Saturday, eager to make it to the 5 p.m. opening. Jennifer Cariño and Merci Javier Dulawan found themselves stuck to their seats in separate buses for more than double the six hours it normally took to traverse the distance between Baguio and Cubao. Somewhere in Bulacan, as they neared the Balintawak exit, the traffic ground to a halt.

The concern of a few others (Baboo Mondoñedo, Toottee Chanco Pacis, Fara Manuel and myself), who made it down earlier, was the torrential rains were making the streets, roads and highways leading to the Alabang venue impassable. The text message reached us around noon: opening moved to Oct. 4, Sunday, 5 p.m.

Now and then I’d check the Facebook home page and grow alarmed at the calls for help. After assurances from friends through SMS that they were safe, except for some seepage in lower parts of their houses and soaked documents, things would be better in the morning. Or so I thought. The last image in my mind before I slept was of Brenda Fajardo, my former professor in modern art, ready to clamber to the roof of her house because her first floor was completely flooded.

As soon as the skies cleared on Sept. 27, I took a cab from Kapitolyo, Pasig, to the Victory Liner terminal in Cubao. The cab’s floor was wet, the seat damp and the cabbie’s eyes swollen from lack of sleep. He had spent a harrowing 12 hours stranded somewhere in Pasong Tamo, Makati. His last passengers, en route to the domestic airport to pick up a returning relative, paid him P350 out of P500+ fare. He said it took them close to six hours to cross EDSA from Cubao to Pasong Tamo. When the waters rose rapidly, the passengers, who expected their balikbayan relative to pay the balance of the fare after pick-up, decided to head home in the MRT, leaving the cabbie stranded with his vehicle.

I never thought I’d write and paint myself to irrelevance, but apparently I just did. It has been difficult to put on a mask of normalcy each day and night I continue my routine, little things like attending classes, doing my minimum load of housework, eating a meal with my family. Anyone who survived the worst environmental disaster in Metro Manila is wracked with a form of guilt and must be moved to do his/her bit in the huge rehabilitation work that lies ahead.

Just the same, the Baguio Aquarelle show must go on. "Baguio" opens today, as earlier mentioned, at the French Corner on Commerce and Filinvest Avenues, Westgate Center, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang. Part of the proceeds from sales made will go to the cause of the Ondoy victims/survivors.

Photo shows the Aquarelles safe under an Ifugao hut minutes before they felt Typhoon Kiko's fury (Photo by EV ESPIRITU)

Here's to You, Ida

My youngest daughter Ida has repeatedly asked me, "When are you going to do my portrait?" Well, Ms. Miranda Bituin, here's how I see you. This painting, "Miranda's Slippers," is part of "Summer Halo-Halo," the third exhibition of the tireless Baguio Aquarelle Society at Tam-awan Village Gallery, Pinsao Proper, Baguio City. Show runs till May 11. Other participating painters are: Roland Bay-an, Jenny Carino, Norman Chow, Merci Dulawan, Baboo Mondonedo, Toottee Pacis and Patric Palasi. Photo by ANDREW DULAWAN

An Aquarelle Rides Again

April's approach has not exactly been kind (I've not yet fully recovered from the assault of an intestinal virus, yes, a virus, not an egg or parasite). Despite the month's famed cruelty, I managed to steal three precious, unfettered hours for some gentle spiritual shampooing. Translation: I painted again despite pressing, more important deadlines.

Here We Are Again

“Baguio Pay Laeng” is the title of the Baguio Aquarelle Society’s second exhibition opening on Feb. 8, this Sunday, at 4 p.m. at the Roman Ozaeta Wing of the Baguio Country. Club. It should be subtitled “The Passion of Baboo” because if it weren’t for Baboo Mondonedo’s leadership and love for the watercolor medium, we the members would be content in taking up the brush only when the spirit moves us.

But as Toottee Chanco-Pacis said, “I work best under pressure.” So that was how we found ourselves Wednesday afternoon with teacher Norman Chow supervising us—working on our paintings under pain of deadline but managing to enjoy ourselves.

I finished three watercolors that day and had them rushed for framing the next. Let’s see how our viewers take to our new set of odes to Baguio.

Here's "Toottee's Anthuriums," a still life I made based on one of thousands of objects in my friend's house. Photo by ELMER KRISTIAN DAUIGOY

Now Showing

The way Baboo Mondoñedo tells it, the Baguio Aquarelle Society began when her painting teacher Patric Palasi couldn’t meet her because he had spilled hot water on his foot. He advised her to seek out Roland Bay-an so she wouldn’t miss a lesson. When Roland saw her, he wondered aloud how come, in a city of visual artists, there was no watercolorists’ group? That was all Baboo needed to lasso people and make an appointment with a more than cooperative Heiner Maulbecker, general manager of The Manor, Camp John Hay. He acquiesced to everything she requested. As he put it, how could he say no to four women? And that is how the ground level of the hotel today carries whiffs of Baguiong-Baguio—in the lobby, at Le Chef, along the corridor, beside the elevators. There the works of the other members hang, capturing the spirit of place. In this photo are the members (front row, from left): Toottee Pacis, Baboo, Norman Chow, Roland, Merci Dulawan and me. Second row: Rishab, Patric, Jenny Cariño and curator Erlyn Ruth Alcantara. The huge painting we're holding is an interactive work with our guests. Photo by ELMER KRISTIAN DAUIGOY

Like Water for Baguio

Because I found the medium difficult (even the experts say so), I thought I had completely turned my back on watercolor after I submitted my final-exam plate to my instructor in my Painting 2 class in 2006. It’s a pity, I thought, because I’ve always loved water media’s softness, blurriness and the high probability of accidents even if it’s Antipas Delotavo wielding the brush and his subject is as hard-edged as the news aired on “TV Patrol.” When my plate was graded and returned, I was so in a hurry to dispose of it that when Mercy Fabros, my former Lamaze teacher, a feminist and an art collector, expressed interest in women’s self-portraits, I gave my work to her without rue.

There’s a Pinoy saying that goes: “Huwag kang magsasalita nang patapos.”

Over the past several weeks, I have been reviewing watercolor techniques under the supervision of the most exacting and yet patient painting teacher I’ve ever met—Norman Chow. Before I finalize a work, he would make me paint several small versions on unevenly cut sheets of Strathmore paper (master watercolorist Francisco Pellicer Viri dismisses that brand as “practice paper,” he being loyal to Arches all these decades).

Another watercolorist, Roland Bay-an, was right when he said you sometimes wind up more satisfied with the practice version than with the final piece. I wonder if this is the same with concert pianists. The comparison with music is a bit of a stretch, but that is how I feel about this “practice painting” I did of the old stone market of Baguio.

This is an early plug for the newly formed Baguio Aquarelle Society which will hold its first exhibition at The Manor of Camp John Hay. “Baguiong-Baguio” (to mean “very Baguio” and not a wish for rain on our parade) opens Sept. 10 and runs for two months. Apart from Bay-an, Chow and this perennial student of the arts, the other participating artists are Baboo Mondoñedo, who brought us all together for this activity, Jenny Cariño, Toottee Pacis, Merci Javier Dulawan, Patric Palasi and Rishab. More about each of them in a future blog. Abangan! Photo by ELMER KRISTIAN DAUIGOY