It's a jolly holiday with Gilda

"Time for lunch. Waiting na kami," the SMS from Gilda Cordero Fernando went. The summons came while I was in a cab with a driver-road warrior who knew how to navigate the mean streets of Metro Manila to get me to Panay Avenue on time.

In time to find the hostess and her other guest, art organizer Trickie C. Lopa, enjoying a meal of fresh fruit salad, soup steeped in slices of chicken galantina, clam spaghetti, fish croquettes. They were midway, and I caught up in good time while GCF and I mapped out our art hop itinerary. The OC in her likes to write things down to make sure she doesn't forget. I take photos for the same reason.

We traveled in an old van that could fit Gilda's "stroller" from Quezon City to Makati. All for art! No wonder artists old, middle aged, young and still studying alike, love you, Gilda.

The most unique gate along the stretch of Panay Avenue features these images, not aliens, insects actually, painted by Dexter Fernandez.

The back of the gate that faces the inside of the compound

The Leandro Locsin-designed Cordero-Fernando art house with a lush garden planted and tended by Gilda's late husband Marcelo

Trickie and Gilda look at an image of the latest Gabby Barredo sculpture in the former's phone.


First stop: Four simultaneous solo shows at West Gallery. Aiko, Gilda's sidekick, and Gilda prepare the latter's "stroller"-cum-wheelchair

"Nestled in Love," oil on buffalo horn and skull by Henry Royales

Viewing Alwin Reamillo's "Mise en (matched) scene"

Details from one of Reamillo's Chinese scroll paintings. Could those be Bonifacio and Aguinaldo?

Reading a wall essay about Louie Cordero's art at Finale Art File

Studying Cordero's "Pattern for life's never-ending search for utopia"

"Ba't maganda ito? Cordero ito!" She holds up one half of a bookend (designed in the shape of a lamb or cordero) while waiting for another art show, Leeroy New's, to open in Greenbelt 5.

New's installation "Garden of Earthly Delights" at posh Greenbelt 5, an Altro Mondo-organized affair

Dr. Joven Cuanang, another passionate lover of art, tells us to hold each other for this photo with Gilda and art's darling Leeroy New.

Photos, except for the last, by Babeth Lolarga

Thursday was meant for Yayoi Kusama

The text was tempting (pardon the alliteration): "Want to gallery hop with Julie and me on Thursday 9 a.m.?" Of course I wanna, came my swift reply. 

It turned out Thursday may not be that good a day to do a visita iglesia of some galleries. Cinemas change the movies they screen on Wednesdays. Apparently, galleries put up new shows on a Thursday, a detail I and fellow hoppers now keep in mind after dropping by yesterday at the Finale and Nova Galleries at La Fuerza compound on Pasong Tamo, Makati, only to find that a show of new Arturo Luz works was still being installed while a newly mounted photo exhibit wasn't prepared for visitors yet (carpenter's tools were strewn on the floor).

"It's a bad day," came the bleak pronouncement from a disappointed voice at the back of the car.

"Don't say that! It isn't over yet," the optimist piped up.

In a DVD movie I recently saw, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, there is a quotation always being invoked by a character when things aren't turning out well: "In India, we have a saying--everything will be all right in the end. So if it is not all right, it is not yet the end."

In the car of gallery hoppers, someone lobbied for the Yayoi Kusama show at Ayala Museum. Winner! And we came out nearly declaring, "We love Kusama." Gilda loved the Japanese woman's walang pakialam way of expressing herself in any medium. How does that translate in this context--a fearless attitude to art? 

Kusama seems to have done what she wants to do. Along the way she has made high art (watercolors or acylics on canvas, prints with glitters, a mixed media installation, mirror boxes) more accessible to people. Her designs aren't only on paper or on canvas. They're on Louis Vuitton bags, valises and scarves, they're on stickers, ballpoint pens, kikay or cosmetic kits, underwear (bras and panties), foot stools, pillows, t-shirts, coats, bookmarks, too. 

Her colors and designs are forever young and pop like the ones Gilda Cordero Fernando wore on her shirt (and pants and walking cane) or Ning Encarnacion Tan wore on her feet (glossy blue-green Doc Martens with matching Marks & Spencer bag, all purchased 50 percent off) or Julie Lluch wore on her sleeves. Or the yellow football coach's eyeglass necklace that I like to wear as a necessary accessory (thank you, Nella Sarabia).

Cameras weren't allowed inside the museum so I just have these few shots of us outdoors looking satisfied after the visual feast. Even the artist's name is worshiped by leaping waters from a fountain.

The water is wild over Kusama!

Unfortunately, this shot doesn't reveal the look of our shoes. Gilda had on lace-up shoes in a nice shade of yellow ochre with multi-color soles. I was in my comfy silver and black Hush Puppies. Julie was in a pair of two and a half inch-high wedge heels. Note Ning's collar--she tells non-paying clients that once she's fully paid, she can afford to have the other half of the collar made.

Ning (left) earlier noted that at the museum lobby, where a flock of Assumption kids was on a field trip, she noticed the girls looking agog at our footwear. She could tell from their looks that they were thinking, "How dare they!"

Thank you, Gilda, for being in charge of the transportation committee. As for the ones tasked in drawing up the itinerary, we'll do a better job next time. It's not every Thursday that a Kusama will be around to save the day.