KASINING ESSAYS by Arnaldo de Tondo

  Essay 52.  NON FINITO DREAMS By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol Last June 12, I and my cycling buddy Isko Dela Cruz carried out the first of our artist studio visits to the place of sculptor/painter HENRY BRAULIO in Sucat, Parañaque. I dubbed this on-bike visits, rather facetiously at first, as our 'Lakwatsang Pintor". It was a long ride -  for me at least. But not for Isko because he is what I call a "super cyclist" - a veteran of many bike rides to Bicol and other true distant places. Henry is a freelance sculptor working for the House of Precast, the pioneer and leader in the field of decorative concrete art in the Philippines. The House of Precast has a long history going back to 1950, the year it was founded. The company specializes in manufacturing made to order sculptures, and other architectural and garden ornamentations. Henry was born in Lamitan, Basilan on November 15, 1963, to Federico Concepcion Braulio and Pacita Estrella Apiado. He was the youngest of six. H...

  Essay 51. CHRONICLER OF OUR PAST (The Art of Dan Libor) By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol Cinema advertising, the industry engaged in the production of huge movie billboards or "cartelons", was a field many starting painters from decades ago aspired to break into. It was seen as a somewhat steady source of income, (the proverbial bread and butter) because of the brisk demand then by movie producers and theaters for those hand-painted movie ads. Now a lost art, cinema advertising's seeming demise was caused by the influx of digitally-printed tarpaulins which ad clients must have found cheaper and of a higher quality because of their faithful reproduction of movie images. Cinema advertising was Dan Libor's stepping stone to a future career as a "serious painter". He started early. He was still a teenager when he was hired as cartelon painter in the early 1960s. His colleagues during those days were the young Ephraim Samson, Loreto Racuya, and Freddie Villanueva - a...