Our Lives in Cantos

Images: A study with charcoal and watercolor; Final work with pen and watercolor

Looking forward to Friday’s exhibit and still very nervous. This is how I describe my feelings towards showing my work: I feel naked and I haven’t done that workout yet. Or I could just change the way I feel about it by thinking that this could be my first weigh in, and see how I improve from here. I’m just so thankful that I got the chance to do this.

And if you missed our press release from last Monday’s Inquirer Arts and Books section (pageC3), here’s the full and unedited text:

Three Artists Explore Their Lives in Cantos

Our lives are marked by chapters. Inspired by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, three young artists lift verses from one of his greatest works, The Divine Comedy, and from it weave their own stories. In the poem, Dante casts himself as a pilgrim on a journey through the consuming fires of Hell, the steep mountain of Purgatory, and the lush gardens of Heaven. In the group exhibit of Nikki Abaya, Dang Sering, and Mimi Tecson, works from their own journeys will be shown on March 20, 7 p.m., at White Box Gallery, Cubao X, Quezon City.

Upon seeing Beatrice Portinari, it was love at first sight for Alighieri. To represent his great love, Nikki Abaya cloaks herself in the perfume of Beatrice. Abaya’s portraits in oil conjure images of this magical woman, the source of the poet’s joy and pain, which spurred him to write the beautiful verses of La Vita Nuova, a collection of love poems.  The Divine Comedy may have helped him come to terms with his life and, eventually, lay a path to find his great love. His death one evening in September 1321 allowed him to join Beatrice in Paradise.

Dang Sering’s work touches on the fires of Hell – the fires that consume and conceal. Her works present Hell as a place of concealment, the opposite of Heaven as revelation. Her illustrations serve as symbolic preludes that may have eventually led to her wandering into the dark wood. The graphic fires are Hell closing in, suppressing us from seeing the whole picture and our innate goodness, serving only a narrow vision of ourselves.

Mimi Tecson’s work takes off from the middle of the tale. With the map of her life before her, Tecson relies on memory as she lays the cornerstones that mark all her 27 years. In her works, Heaven represents the happiest moments of her life, while Hell brings out the saddest times. In her boxes populated with small plastic found objects, she reconstructs a life of consequences. Her work serves as an overview of decisions made, circumstances accepted, and the possibilities for adventure.

“Cantos”, in Italian, means “songs”.  With still so much to discover, these young artists are, hopefully, learning how to move to their own music.

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Please come! There’s art, food, and friends. Oh yeah, there’s beer too.:)

Exhibit Coming Up!

This 3 by 4 ft. canvas is blank no more!

Since late December of last year, I’ve been working on concepts, verses, sketches, and studies for my upcoming group exhibit. I’m so glad to be finally putting out work in a gallery (or on public, gasp!)…something I haven’t done in a long time since I graduated in 2004.

I’ve been wanting to do an exhibit for a long time now, but didn’t know exactly what to paint about. I felt like I just didn’t paint whatever for all the world to see. These art experiments are done for my own personal curiosity.

There have been a lot of experiences and issues that I’ve tried to grapple with in my own life. And as I was on my way out of  internal turmoil (this I failed to see because I was in it) and trying to make sense of things,  serendipity makes a visit. A friend asked me to join a group exhibit – and I’ve been invited many times before, but felt I wasn’t ready – but somehow, I agreed and have been full of excitement. When she pitched her concept for the exhibit, the idea just completely resonated with me.

In our exhibit, our works take inspiration from Dante Aleghieri’s Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). In this Italian epic poem, written between 1308 and 11321, Dante (the poet as pilgrim) explores the Christian afterlife in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. What is interesting about this work is how the writer plays himself, the protagonist of his own verses.

What we take from this epic poem are the verses that resonate in our own lives and how it inspires our own journey.