Ada's Realm of Magic

 

Essay 30. ADA'S REALM OF MAGIC

By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol

Engkantada is the Tagalog equivalent of the word enchantress. Engkantadas are said to guard our mountains, forests, and seas. Of the Filipino engkantadas, no one is more famous than Mariang Makiling and Mariang Sinukuan who were the resident goddesses of Mt. Makiling and Mt. Arayat respectively. Engkantadas so fascinate ADA PANOPIO that she made them the major subject of her art.

Like Ada, many Filipino artists, most notably Botong Francisco have depicted Mariang Makiling and the other nature spirits time and again. The engkantadas as painted  by other artists though were always clad in baro't saya or other native Filipino attire. On the other hand Ada's engkantadas, except those characters from Philippine legends, were depicted naked, or nearly so, in the manner of Frank Frazetta's and Boris Vallejo's portrayal of goddesses and other mighty creatures in their fantasy paintings. 

But Ada wasn't familiar with the works of Frazetta and Vallejo. What inspired her when she was in high school were the characters from the  manga series Magic Knight Rayearth which she routinely copied. But her fascination with Japanese cartoons came later, because much earlier, when she was but a child, her vivid imagination impelled her to draw without any references fantasy creatures like, nymphs, fairies, elves, leprechauns, and unicorns. She liked to draw too their haunts, like the brooks dotted with boulders that flow through a magical forest. Ada claims that her imagination was so rich in those days, that she felt like she can do anything and go anywhere. Everything she drew then we're culled from her imagination, her dreams - a foreshadowing of her present adherence to surrealism and everything fantastic.

Ada disclosed in an interview that she likes to paint women, especially the enchantresses of our folktales and legends. Her obsession with the female form, she adds, is merely her journey towards finding herself. She revealed that the women she paints, who were gifted with extraordinary beauty and mysterious powers, were in truth but reflections of herself, and her dreams and aspirations as a woman.

Florna "Ada" Panopio is from San Pascual, Batangas. She took up her Fine Arts course major in Advertising at the Batangas State University, but missed the chance to earn her degree. She worked for eight years as Marketing Assistant and Graphic Designer for the Citimart Group of Companies, where she displayed her artistry in designing their grand prize-winning company floats for the float parade in Batangas City and for Tanauan City's Parade of Lights. She was obliged to resign during the height of the pandemic, not only because she was scared to go out and risk getting herself infected with the covid virus, but also because of the need to assist her children in their online schooling. 

Ada now sees her leaving the corporate world as a blessing in disguise. She confessed that despite her being contented and happy in her previous job, there was still that striving for true fulfillment, the craving to pursue her passion to paint. Because only in that way can she gambol again, so to speak, in her magical realm with those enchantresses that were so like her, and the other fanciful creatures that were so real and alive to her when she was just a little girl.