Would the Philippine contemporary
art world be poorer had Geraldine Guillen Javier been so dutiful a daughter
that she became more Florence Nightingale than her true self after she passed
the nursing board exams and landed in the Top Ten? The answer is not “perhaps”
but “certainly, definitely bereft.”
A middle child, the fifth of eight,
Geraldine was born to parents who wanted their children to be in
financially stable fields. Her mother is a retired public school teacher, who
once dreamt of being a nurse, and her father, a doctor of medicine, whose own
father died young so he never got to practice his profession but instead
managed the family farm.
With much of the family’s land
falling under agrarian reform, the Javiers stay home in Candelaria, Quezon,
where they putter around the garden. Sometimes, they visit Geraldine and her
brother, who stay at the family’s city house in Sampaloc, Manila, when it is
time for their medical checkup. Or she’d visit them in the province that she
calls “a sanctuary, a place where I can be me. Whenever I need a reality check,
that’s where I am.”
While enrolled for her first degree
in nursing, Geraldine used to ask her parents every semester if she could shift
to fine arts. But she’d get the adamant response to continue her studies in
nursing as it would translate to a sure-fire job. She recalls, “I found it hard
to explain to them that there was no need for a fallback job if I was
determined to excel in what I wanted to do.”
Even when she passed the board and
decided to sign up for another degree, this time her heart’s desire: fine
arts. She had no regrets. Her months involved in an allied medical profession
at the Philippine General Hospital taught her “a holistic approach to problems,
to empathize, not just sympathize, with a patient. Community service helped in
my maturation.” She even used to buy medicine books for the sheer pleasure of
reading them.
Perhaps her parents gave their
grudging “yes” this time. By her senior year at the College of Fine Arts at the
University of the Philippines Diliman, Geraldine was already active in group
shows along with her batch mates Mariano Ching, Yasmin Sison, Keiye Miranda,
Wire Tuazon. When she left school with a few units of electives undone so she
could give her all to her calling, again her parents insisted that she finish
the course on grounds that in case a full-time career was not feasible, she
could be an art teacher.
She showed them…and how! With her
works fetching good sums not just in her home country but abroad, her family
has realized that a regular job she could report to is not all that necessary
to survive, prevail with elan and contribute to the growth of Philippine art
and culture.
She says, “My family is not only
proud of what I have become, they are prouder of what I have not become—a
monster! At least, I’m not one yet. They fully understand how important
my work is for me. They do their best to support me. Dad keeps a scrapbook of
articles about me and my work. Often, I consent to interviews and features
just so Dad would have a steady supply of materials, ha ha. Super Mom
makes sure that I eat right and take care of myself. She tries her best to make
life easier for me.”
In the process of doing the work she
truly loves, she discovers that the trait of empathy, honed in nursing school,
remains strong. She can pour herself, her emotions even into an object, not
just a person, she is painting.
As her work developed from collages
to combining photography and painting, then moving on to large-scale works, she
brings in other things she loved from childhood like embroidery and crafts.
She says, “In grade school, I was
always the first to finish projects in practical arts and would often do
my other classmates’ works. I was not aware that I was being creative. It was
pure enjoyment then. Now, I'm happy to incorporate this passion for thread
work in my paintings and hope someday they can stand on their own, without
the painting, and be accepted as art.”
Here is where she arrives at an
insight. “After all, it is only ideas that separate art from crafts,” she says
convincingly.
When asked if embroidery induces her
to fall into a contemplative mood the way women’s “crafts” do and if it is a
way to mend whatever it is she is hurting from, she replies, “I have many
wounds. I love life so much that in my naivete, I oftentimes embrace it with
total abandon. All I wish is for me to be able to always muster enough
strength, courage and humility to accept the hits and blows with equal
grace the way I do when I am receiving blessings.”
Mindful not to let success get into
her head but instead share her blessings with others, she collaborates in her
embroidery with “angels” who were originally hired as house help.
She noticed that before noon, most
of their duties were done. During their idle hours, Geraldine trained them in
embroidery. “They had no knowledge of it at all but now, go to my next solo
show here and you’ll see for yourself.”
Apart from their salaries, the
angels in her life earn much more from embroidering. Two are studying. Their
employer is arranging a schedule so eventually, all will be in school. She
says of their courses, “Nothing ambitious; more on practical courses.”
She calls Myra Tocayon, Cherry and
Jennifer Sulad “angels” because the previous strings of household help gave her
nightmares and wore her out. Myra, Cherry and Jennifer she considers God-sent.
She says, “They have good heads, are very sensible and nurture ambitions. I
wouldn’t call them art associates yet. Maybe, when they start contributing
ideas (I will), but I don’t treat them as just workers. I sometimes take them
to exhibitions, tell them art-related issues that I’m concerned with. I discuss
with them the ideas behind the works we’re making to impress on them the
importance of hard work and putting out quality pieces. I do not give sermons. We
just exchange stories.”
She applies herself with the same
consistent discipline that enabled her to go this far. After rising for
breakfast with her brother and kasambahay,
she exercises in front of a video, a combination of aerobics and weight
lifting. Her typical day is “working from morning till evening. I paint in the
daytime, embroider at night,” lifting her head now and then to watch a DVD
movie.
She says of her viewing face, “I
watch light films and TV series because they’re easier to follow. Highly
recommended is Weeds, a brave series
about a single mother forced to sell weeds to support her dysfunctional
family. Another is Numbers where
the FBI enlists a mathematician to solve crimes. It’s very interesting but not
recommended while sewing because one needs to focus all brain power to
understand the theories.”
As part of her research for a group
show that has elements of horror and suspense in it, she has been viewing again
what she calls “the creepy children series” like The Shining, Children of the
Corn, Pet Sematary, Amityville, The Exorcist. She is seeing them as an adult and checking if these
movies “still have the power to scare me. The
Shining is still powerful, especially the scene where blood gushes out of the
walls. I can only watch The Exorcist
if I have company. This is by far the scariest for me. If there’s anyone who
wants to see this movie, feel free to join me.”
She rues, though, that she misses “the
days when reading was part of my daily routine. There are so many things to do,
and I don’t want to scrimp on sleep because it’s part of the discipline. I can
only paint well if I have enough untroubled sleep. I’m reading Karen Armstrong’s
book In the Beginning, a contemporary
interpretation of The Book of Genesis. What makes this a great book are the
insights. The Bible has always been a
scary book for me because I get confused with the ways of both God and men.”
She was thinking of returning to The Bible to research for another show
to find out “the many ways I can use trees and birds to illustrate stories, but
I was hesitant to read it.” She discovered Armstrong’s book. It was “like
experiencing epiphany. Everything made sense. She explains in simple terms why
humans act the way they do, and they do after a rift with God. She’s not
preachy. When she talks about creativity (she’s not referring to art), it’s how
it can be used as a tool to overcome a conflict with God.”
Geraldine also enjoys historical
fiction and is amazed “how writers can create a tapestry of stories and
incorporate this in historical events. My faves are Alice Walker, Mo Yan and Anchee
Min and lately, Orhan Pamuk. Someday, when I can read at leisure again, I want
to reread books that fascinated me as a teenager—Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Darwin’s Origin of the Species.”
Her dream project is to interpret
Boticelli’s “Primavera,” a work she admires for the way the artist painted the
trees and blooms. “I like the story of ‘Primavera’ because I love nature. I’m in
awe of Boticelli. I’ll know when it’s the right time to do a particular work like ‘Primavera.’
It’s not yet time. This work is steeped in mythology, and I need a good story
to make a contemporary interpretation of this masterpiece.”
What she plans on doing is to
combine intricate embroideries with painting. She does not compromise with her
materials even if she pays through the nose to order online assorted Italian
threads to achieve different textures.
When she starts a work, she does not
do preliminary sketches. “Drawing is not my thing,” she says. “My real talent
is weaving together found images and creating a story. Often, the story comes
first and I wait for the right images. Intuition comes into play in many of
these works.”
Apart from the artists she admires, among
them Frida Kahlo, the people in her milieu who influence her art-making are “great
friends with great minds who also happen to be some of the most hardworking,
passionate, intelligent people I know, not to mention the craziest.”:
Among them is Raymond Lee whom she
calls “the Mother Lily of indie films, an award-winning scriptwriter, an
art addict who is very dear to the art community here. I have collector friends
whose bonds with me go beyond getting works from me. One is like an uncle,
brother, friend, adviser, stylist. They keep me not only well-informed but
grounded.”
The products of her early struggles,
training, dreams, imagination and grace-filled life are being seen in places as
near as Makati and as far as Singapore and Milan.
Despite the enviable life of a
single successful woman, it isn’t one that is devoid of pain. She says, “When I embrace it, I don’t mean ceaseless, meaningless
activities. Of course, I derive pleasure also from shopping, eating,
enjoying the company of friends and family. However, life and art for me are
inextricably linked. I do everything with passion. I work harder, love
deeply, risk more and as a consequence, I tend to get hurt deeper when things
fail to live up to expectations. I learn from these experiences. It’s not
easy to continue living (when I’m hurt), but I don't withdraw. I embrace
life again, and again, and again.”
It took some detours to arrive at
what she wants to do with her life. But as a poet once said, it’s not the
destination but the journeying that matters.-- Elizabeth Lolarga
A version of this article was first published in an issue of Contemporary Art Philippines, 2010.
Top: “Ella Amo Apasionadamente Y Fue Correspondida”
Bottom: "Blackbird Singing”
Photos of Geraldine Javier's works from http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/javier_geraldine/artist/306258/
