Art + medicine = hapi wheelchairs

"Nobody says no to Gilda Cordero Fernando," Dr. Joven Cuanang of St. Luke's Medical Center said at  yesterday's Apolinario Mabini Hapi Wheelchairs Parade. He added that it was her "flash of genius" that set the wheels in motion for this project that has seen an exciting synergy between art and medicine. With just a little goading and reminding from her, the 17 participating artists let their imaginations fly, thus giving the start of National Disability Week added panache.   Photos by Babeth Lolarga

The Cordero Fernando and Cuanang tandem should be further tapped for revolutionary and out-of-the-box ideas born out of passionate minds and a deep love for the healing arts.

Aba Dalena and writer Carla Pacis pose beside the former's "Anghel Bulilit."

GCF aboard Marc Cosico's carretela wheelchair

Even the group that provided the music came on wheels!

That's production manager Manny Chaves, second from left, looking not too harassed.

Kidlat Tahimik with his bamboo camera and "All-weather Guardian Angel Salumpuwet"

Agnes Arellano explains what her "Anti-stress Wheelchair" is all about: breasts and nipples made of silicone rubber, recycled from her sculpture molds and turned into acupressure points.

Pancho Villanueva and Ling Quisumbing Ramilo's collaboration

Io Regalado's chair has a wide golden wingspan.

Senior students from the Philippine High School for the Arts put together a cityscape in and on a chair.

Noel Cuizon jokingly calls the welded together wheelchairs as his and Karen Flores's "conjugal property" to underscore the "in sickness and in health" clause in their friendship.

Wendy Regalado smiles beside "Beast Friends Forever."

Robert Alejandro and his "Silver Chariot"

Plet Bolipata is fashionably cocooned in "Winged Icarus."

Don Salubayba's "Trono" includes blinking lights.

May more partnerships arise among the idea persons, the artists, the Philippine Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine and The Mind Museum.

Joey Cob’s Challenge: ‘Satisfied Ka Ba?’

He insisted on calling me “Mama Beth” from first eyeball until I told him “Mama Bear” sounded better. Since then, our brief exchange of SMS and email has been more relaxed, comfortable enough for me to say “Wait lang” when he persists with a question or request.

Today, while going through my computer folder labeled “Pending” to stand for unfinished work, I saw this exchange Joey Cobcobo and I had right before the May 10 elections when I hurriedly made a side trip to SM Megamall Art Center to check out the group show called "Signos," a Slash/Art project. Noel Cuizon and Karen Ocampo Flores, the persons behind Slash/Art, had conceptualized this exhibit (before the former was taken ill; he is on the road to recovery). It was a politically charged show like anything that would spring from the combined energies of Noel and Karen. They can rally the visual arts community to comment on the national situation.

These days, however, I am hovering in "neitherland" (neither here nor there; not all there). I fight lapses of memory, drawing up endless to-do lists, the done list never quite catching up with what remains to still be accomplished. I saw this Q&A, a quiet admonition that reminds me of what remains, well, undone “that gives a bit of heartache at the setting of the sun,” to quote an old poem from childhood.

Let Joey speak. This old bear needs to check on the heated porridge. His youth enables him to draw up his own to-do list, to explore non-traditional materials and to match his activities with this rare quality called faith. Old mama bear feels refreshed just reviewing his answers.

Why do you work with what seems to be frail material (piña)? Have you given up on canvas on board?

I like paper, pulp and the raw materials of piña which we have here. We’re known as piña country. I want my prints to be look like three-dimensional forms, with no limitations at all. A Japanese master paper-maker studied the combination of piña, saba and koxo (mulberry). The result is one of the strongest types of paper. This was tested here and abroad. Handmade paper with piña is acid-free paper, it’s organic, no chemicals are added. When I paste/glue, I use kunyaku powder from Kunyaku’ plant. So what with canvas or wood? Saan ba sila galing? Minsan mas masaya ung mahirap at makitid na daan kesa sa lahat na komportable pero kelangan mo lang i-explore, pag-aralan. Maybe it’s just a matter of how you frame it, or where you place it? Or even, do you love it?

Kung ano man maging resulta ng eleksyon, may saysay ba ito sa iyong buhay at sa buhay ng karaniwang Pinoy?

Lahat ng pinagpaguran natin ay magkakaroon lamang ng saysay kung ito’y maiintindihan at maipauunawa natin sa lahat ng antas ng tao. Boto ng mayaman ay parehas lang ang bigat kumpara sa boto ng mahirap. Pila ko, pila mo rin. Bilog ko, bilog mo rin. Huwag lang sanang bilugin ang taong walang alam.
Sumabay pa tong reunion ng high school batch ko. Sama ako dyan pero magtratrabaho ako. Survey on Top 10 promises of the politicians so after merienda at pikturan, umupo ako sa gitna ng malaking batong mesa. We joked around hanggang sa ipasok ko ang tunay na agenda. Magbigay naman kayo ng mga pangako ng mga politiko na napanood, narinig at nakita ninyo sa inyong lugar. Madaming naglabasan pero pumili ako ng 10 pangako ng mga politiko. Kahit ano puwede mauna:
1. Babayaran ko ang utang ng Pilipinas.
2. OpO = Oposisyon ako
3. Libreng computer at Internet sa bawat pamilya
4. Di ako sinungaling, i-lie detector test niyo pa ako.
5. Kasangga mo ang langit.
6. Tapusin ang kahirapan.
7. Gusto ko happy ka.
8. Hindi ako magnanakaw.
9. College graduate sa bawat isang pamilya
10. Libreng pabahay
After that discussion, haay salamat, uwian na, but they pushed me to lead them in prayer, especially for a schoolmate who died. Okay, fine. It was a solid prayer, the first time I felt the strong impact of the God Spirit. I can’t explain the real joy and peace in my heart that still remains. Lahat napagod sa botohan, lahat may napala, tumatak man sa isipan ng Pinoy o hindi ang aking ginawa, ito ay ingay pa din. Wala akong pinagsisihan, wala akong pinanghinayangan sa aking mga ginawa. Ang tanong ko lang sa kapwa Pinoy: SATISFIED KA BA?

Photo shows Joey Cobcobo and his contribution to "Signos"

‘Oh, My Señorita, Sweet Sweet Lady’: The Story Behind the Painting

Sometime in February this year, my youngest of four sisters, Gigi Lolarga (poker nut to me, Eugenia Celerina D. Lolarga in her birth certificate), asked me, her ate, what my birthday gift was for her. Normally, I’d pull something out of my thin wallet. But that day, all I could promise her was a portrait of Bruno Lolarga, her “son.”

The image of the playful pug Brunski stayed in my mind like an old refrain, so to speak. When friends like Brenda V. Fajardo, my former professor in modern art in the mid-1970s (gosh, this really dates me) fell seriously ill followed by Rey Rimando, math prof at UP Baguio and my children’s math tutor who made them less fearful of numbers (his aneurysm struck on Valentine week) and Noel Cuizon (a nephew of Brenda’s, by the way), there was no way my earnings as a freelance writer would contribute anything of significance to the cost of their operations, recuperation, follow-up with medical specialists, rehabilitation, etc.

By this time I was keeping mind, breaking heart and sometimes unsteady hands busy by painting in preparation for a solo show at Taumbayan bar-bistro.

I texted my exhibit proposal to Joel Saracho, former colleague from Manila Standard days and manager-partner of the bar, who was on a video shoot in Bukidnon, but he managed to reply, “That’s so Taumbayan,” meaning he approved of my contrasting blings with canned goods and instant noodles.

Summer of last year, he invited me to exhibit there when it was just a few months old. Since then, the place has been a night owl’s hub for the theater and television people who keep odd (a.k.a. vampire ) hours. I felt right at home that first time there with Gou de Jesus and Ernie Enriquez.

Someone was having a birthday then—Augie Rivera, if my blinking memory is working right. We were complete strangers to one another but were quickly introduced. Like any hospitable birthday celebrator, he asked me to partake of his feast. Un-shy when faced with a rectangular slab of Estrel’s caramel cake, I cut a generous slice complete with rosebud-shaped icing. Talk of feel at home. I always like to use William Saroyan’s title for his book “My Kind of Crazy, Wonderful People” in situations like this.

To shorten this narration, one day in March this year I posted a picture of Bruno on my Facebook profile and stated that I intended to paint a portrait of him paired with a snooty señorita. The images of him with a lady were up there, still vague. Actor Frances Makil Ignacio, Nitz to those who know her, volunteered in her comment to be the model. I asked permission if I could scour her photos posted in her profile to guide me.

I zeroed in on Frances in a black and white polka dotted dress, which turned out to be her costume for her role as Lucy Brown in “Threepenny Opera” by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Well, as Ka Universe (Gilda Cordero Fernando) likes to say, the universe has a way of stitching things together. Even Gou, freelance writer-editor by day, occasional jazz singer by night, gave the bright suggestion of singing our friends to health. An art auction with songs to up the bids--brilliant, Gou!

Meanwhile, I couldn’t think in my regular format of 16” x 20” anymore. This tribute to Bruno, his master Gigi, Frances, etc. had to be BIG to be worth anything if it were to be auctioned off to benefit the sick. So I thought big: four feet by four feet canvas on board. My private art teacher Norman Chow had to repeat the request to ensure he was reading his SMS right. Yes, I texted back, four feet by four feet and make it an order for two canvases.

“Stormy Norman,” our private nickname for him, had his carpenter in Baguio execute the specs up to the stretching and priming of canvases. With paint and brushes ready and the managing of minor assorted household crises in Baguio and Pasig not bothering me any longer, I applied myself the way my other teacher, Jerry Araos, told me how at the greenhouse of Oscar and Toottee Pacis in Happy Homes.

Norman guided me all the way, recruiting his son Chino, a computer science major who paints on the side, to help. Chino was a study in coolness while Norman and I mismatched colors, hues and tints, he scratching his bald head, me scratching what was left of my head of hair. On learning that Chino was the third pair of hands in the endeavor, Toottee, who was then in Manila attending a valedictorian grandchild’s graduation, texted: “I hope Chino knows what he’s in for.”

We will see what we’re all in for when “Oh, My Señorita, Sweet Sweet Lady” goes up for auction at an opening bid of P8,000 early this evening, April 9, at Taumbayan, 40 T. Gener and K-1 streets, Kamuning, Quezon City.

Belated happy birthday, baby sis Gi. Sorry the painting of Bruno will find a new owner. Just the same, the real deal will always be with us.

Photo of re-tooled, revised "Oh, My Señorita, Sweet Sweet Lady" by LIWA ARAOS, exhibit curator

The Delightful Shoko-san

She is our Melbourne-based friend who visits the Philippines every other year, sometimes more frequently, depending on how homesick she is.

Homesick for the Philippines? Yes, she is one of those rare global citizens who appreciates this country—her ties of friendship here are deeper and stronger than in anywhere else in the world where she has lived, including Japan.

Shoko Mafune, 54, is a ceramics artist who can do reliefs, sculptures and tiny utilitarian objects like chopstick rests and bird flutes. She gave us the last on her last visit to Manila in February.

We met up at the lobby of the Peninsula Manila, then moved to the Spices Restaurant for a long, talky dinner with our other friends, Noel Cuizon and Mariano Garchitorena, the hotel’s public relations manager. Garch, as we call him, entrusted the choice of the evening’s meal to Spices’ maitre d’ so we didn’t have to waste precious minutes deciding on what to eat.

Except for the flecks of white on her hair, Shoko is the same, still wishing for that elusive love. I think she is my only friend who can state clearly what she wants on that score, and I admire her for that. I can only say I wish good health for myself so I can spend most of my time painting or looking at pictures and things and thinking how I can turn them into a work that has something to say. My wish is far more modest than Shoko’s.

She is back in Melbourne, Australia, conducting pottery classes. On weekends, she drives to different towns to join craft fairs at churchyards and barns. She sets up a table and puts up her wares. She makes friends this way, too, but admits the quality of her friendships in the Philippines is less superficial.

We agreed to put up a two-person show, she doing bigger works, me doing huge paintings. It was Noel’s idea, actually. He wants to act as curator for this dream show, and he’ll be issuing us the guidelines anyday. He is toying with the idea of correspondence.

Here is Shoko in her own words from her website www.shokoceramics.com

“Working with clay has been closely associated with me at almost every major stage of my life.

“I have played with clay since I was a child. My techniques were developed from learning under a traditional Japanese ceramics master for five years. However, my style has evolved and has been affected by living in different countries and encountering different cultures. Every new confrontation, every new challenge in my life has been translated through my medium of clay. My intention is to attract people to touch (not only look) and interact with my work, and in return I want my ceramics to connect the people together. I hope my art can, even for a slight moment, inspire feelings of delight in people.”

Photo shows Shoko's bird flutes.