"A Baby Changes Everything"
Solo exhibition of paintings by Babeth Lolarga
April 8-30, 2012
Nineveh Artspace
Villa Silangan, Santa Cruz, Laguna
In last year's "My Romance" at this same venue, the painter dealt with the subject of her daughter's pregnancy as cause for celebration. It was, for the painter, a personal milestone because then would-be lola transitioned from questioning adult to what the ancients called "crone-hood".
The show's title is from a song composed by Tim Nichols, Craig Wiseman and K.K. Wiseman and popularized by Faith Hill in a Christmas album. In it, it tells of "a pregnant teenage girl faced with the uncertainty of her future and coming to terms with the fact that her life is about to change. In the bridge of the song, it is revealed that the teenaged girl and baby in question are in fact the virgin Mary and Jesus Christ." (source: wikipedia.org)
The lyrics end: "My whole life has turned around/I was lost but now I'm found/A baby changes everything, yeah/A baby changes everything."
This year's show is also celebratory in spirit as that much-anticipated grandchild marks a year as a mortal born, a child who is wanted, a bringer of laughter and light in the life of one initiate crone.
Deriving ideas from the colors, bordering on loudness, the shapes, pared down to their basic appearance, and some titles from songs in her list of personal favorites, the painter tries to capture the changes brought by this new life in a family that had grown too comfortable with the status quo.
When the baby moved to Baguio, physical space had to be made for her, her layette, her stimulating toys. Her clothes have become the priority in the laundry. Adjustments are still being made almost daily to accommodate her growth.
But more than anything, her presence reminds the adults around what our essential purity is all about: to again look at the world with fresh, curious eyes, to experience it even if it means bumps, pain and tears.
The late-blooming painter acknowledges and thanks her art tutor Norman Chow for helping put order amidst the chaos of her mind, her partner Rolly Fernandez for letting her muck around in an improvised studio at the carport in Baguio and facilitating transport of the bigger works, her daughter Kimi for allowing use of Butones herself, her books, toys, socks and shoes as subjects, the Lolarga family members of Pasig who are the painter's favorite critics and hecklers, and Nineveh's Louie Sevilla who has had firsthand experience on how babies change everything, including babies/children of the mind.
The painter's style, if it can be called that already, has been described by friends as "naïf." This she takes pride in as she considers herself a six-year-old at heart with an accrued biological age of 50 plus.
"Into the Wild"
57 x 42 cms.
Acrylic on canvas
2012
"Tell Me Dolly Dimple Cheek
Why You Play and Hardly Sleep"
57 x 42 cms.
Acrylic on canvas
2012
"I Heart Orphaned Socks"
42 x 57 cms.
Acrylic on Canvas
2012
"All Eyes"
42 x 57 cms.
Acrylic on Canvas
2012
"Up on the Shore They Work all Day/Out in the Sun They Slave Away"
61 x 68 cms.
Acrylic on Plywood
2012
"I Hear Babies Cry/I Watch Them Grow/They'll Learn Much More/Than I'll Never Know"
79 x 79 cms.
Acrylic on Wood
"Egg Hunt in the Nursery"
118 x 121 cms.
Acrylic on Wood
Nineveh Art Space/Jonah's House of Prayer is at 2452 1st Avenue, Villa Silangan Subdivision, Santa Cruz, 4009 Laguna with phone/facsimile numbers(+6349)808-6617 and (+6349)810-6315; or e-mail the gallery at nineveh_artspace@hotmail.com.
Solo exhibition of paintings by Babeth Lolarga
April 8-30, 2012
Nineveh Artspace
Villa Silangan, Santa Cruz, Laguna
In last year's "My Romance" at this same venue, the painter dealt with the subject of her daughter's pregnancy as cause for celebration. It was, for the painter, a personal milestone because then would-be lola transitioned from questioning adult to what the ancients called "crone-hood".
The show's title is from a song composed by Tim Nichols, Craig Wiseman and K.K. Wiseman and popularized by Faith Hill in a Christmas album. In it, it tells of "a pregnant teenage girl faced with the uncertainty of her future and coming to terms with the fact that her life is about to change. In the bridge of the song, it is revealed that the teenaged girl and baby in question are in fact the virgin Mary and Jesus Christ." (source: wikipedia.org)
The lyrics end: "My whole life has turned around/I was lost but now I'm found/A baby changes everything, yeah/A baby changes everything."
This year's show is also celebratory in spirit as that much-anticipated grandchild marks a year as a mortal born, a child who is wanted, a bringer of laughter and light in the life of one initiate crone.
Deriving ideas from the colors, bordering on loudness, the shapes, pared down to their basic appearance, and some titles from songs in her list of personal favorites, the painter tries to capture the changes brought by this new life in a family that had grown too comfortable with the status quo.
When the baby moved to Baguio, physical space had to be made for her, her layette, her stimulating toys. Her clothes have become the priority in the laundry. Adjustments are still being made almost daily to accommodate her growth.
But more than anything, her presence reminds the adults around what our essential purity is all about: to again look at the world with fresh, curious eyes, to experience it even if it means bumps, pain and tears.
The late-blooming painter acknowledges and thanks her art tutor Norman Chow for helping put order amidst the chaos of her mind, her partner Rolly Fernandez for letting her muck around in an improvised studio at the carport in Baguio and facilitating transport of the bigger works, her daughter Kimi for allowing use of Butones herself, her books, toys, socks and shoes as subjects, the Lolarga family members of Pasig who are the painter's favorite critics and hecklers, and Nineveh's Louie Sevilla who has had firsthand experience on how babies change everything, including babies/children of the mind.
The painter's style, if it can be called that already, has been described by friends as "naïf." This she takes pride in as she considers herself a six-year-old at heart with an accrued biological age of 50 plus.
57 x 42 cms.
Acrylic on canvas
2012
Why You Play and Hardly Sleep"
57 x 42 cms.
Acrylic on canvas
2012
42 x 57 cms.
Acrylic on Canvas
2012
42 x 57 cms.
Acrylic on Canvas
2012
61 x 68 cms.
Acrylic on Plywood
2012
79 x 79 cms.
Acrylic on Wood
118 x 121 cms.
Acrylic on Wood
Nineveh Art Space/Jonah's House of Prayer is at 2452 1st Avenue, Villa Silangan Subdivision, Santa Cruz, 4009 Laguna with phone/facsimile numbers(+6349)808-6617 and (+6349)810-6315; or e-mail the gallery at nineveh_artspace@hotmail.com.
