Baguio

Close to dusk, taken from the balcony of BenCab’s museum in Baguio, November 2010

For the past months, visiting Baguio has been the best upper for me (no pun intended and no voodoo smoke for this girl). It really uplifts and validates me as a creative person. How does a city love me like that?

Since I visited Baguio as a lost student on the edge and a few months to go before undergraduate thesis, I have come to recognize it as a place where I can be so comfortable in my own skin and trust that the muse will meet me at a cafe or on the street. When the UP campus or my usual work spaces feel empty, I can trust that Baguio will fill me up. And during that last semester, it was the best decision ever made: dragging my boyfriend to hang out with me and talk ART (the oh so big academic ART) in Baguio. I’m lucky too though that this boy loves the idea of spontaneous trips and cafe-hopping.

After college, I forgot about all the art stuff and moved out of academic art-making and into the real world of getting paid for your what you’ve contributed to the organizations and close to fulfilling your passions. But not too close though, but tried to imitate.

After a few years and in a rather roundabout way, I’m slowly dipping my toes back into my creative/artistic practice. The big reunion for me was the art residency in Baguio last November 2010. It was a homecoming to one of my favorite cities and I returned with another purpose: to create works and to share my knowledge to the art school volunteers tasked under my care. The experience was  so wonderful, I had such an amazing time in the company of new friends and fellow artists.

I also met a lot of fascinating people who talked about Baguio as their spiritual/creative home, moving from Manila or another province to carve a place for themselves there. There was once a story about a well-loved writer who can only churn out her best stories in Baguio, and I feel it must be the same for the new friends I’ve met.

I feel lucky and thankful that I get to do again, my ART (oh yeah my personal work!) and put myself out there, oftentimes without a safety net. But that’s where the real adventure begins and creative growth takes place. I pray all the time that I have the courage and fearlessness to go about and do my work without the grip of the ego taking over. There is still much to learn, much to do. And I never let myself forget that.

There is a light that never goes out and that’s my gratitude to Baguio.

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