Of Lighthouses and Dark Places

 

Essay 58. OF LIGHTHOUSES AND DARK PLACES

(The Art of Esther Sevilla-Garcia)

"My spiritual calling is also to be the light and salt of the earth," so declared Esther at the conclusion of my online interview with her. Why salt? What's with salt? Jesus Christ in his sermon on the mount described the crowd he was addressing as the salt of the earth - by which he meant that they were worthy, virtuous, and valuable. Ester aspires to be like them.

Esther's statement reveals her altruistic mindset. She opened her own gallery in Loyola Heights after graduating cum laude in Fine Arts (her second degree) at the University of the Philippines in 1998. Her gallery, the MSG Gallery, was where she held art workshops. Esther later on organized her students and formed the Amber Group. The thrust of her gallery being precisely to provide exposure to the art of her students, it was there that Esther mounted group shows to showcase their output. Sadly though, even if the Amber Group is still active to this day, Esther had to close her gallery after ten years for health reasons, and also to give more time to her family.

Esther Sevilla-Garcia's parents are Luz Bernabe and Dominador Sevilla. She must have inherited her artistic genes from her paternal grandfather who, according to Esther's aunt, was not only a school principal but also a painter. Esther said that her favorite subject during her elementary school years was Art Education. Nevertheless, when the time came for her to enter college, Esther chose to set aside her artistic yearning for a while and took up AB Pollitical Science instead - her first degree.

A true cosmopolite, Esther (Margie or Marge to her acquaintances) had travelled widely. She had visited seven countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. She had also traversed almost the whole length of the Philippines from Batanes to Davao. Esther's contact with exotic cultures was probably what renewed her love for art. The artist in her simply couldn't ignore the scenes she saw and the novel experiences she encountered abroad. She has to document them, by first taking pictures, and then painting them.

Most apt and symbolic of Esther's love for travel and her spiritual side was her fascination with lighthouses as subject matter for her paintings. When traveling, Esther made it a point to take  pictures of lighthouses. Lighthouses are very significant for her because they not only provide light to guide the seafarers, they also are, in a metaphorical sense, the light source that guides humanity along the path of righteousness.

Esther's fixation with light doesn't stop at  painting lighthouses. She disclosed that she carries during her travels her own mini- lighthouse, a flashlight, which is a very useful tool to her, because in addition to deep waters, big waves and storms, she's also afraid of dark places. 

Although she also professed admiration for Vicente Manansala and Hernando Ocampo, it is the realism of Juan Luna and Peter Paul Rubens that Esther emulated. Esther is into painting full time nowadays and has founded and headed the Dynamic Art Group. Esther paints not only lighthouses, but also flowers, birds, and children. Esther's rendition of the craggy cliffs on which her lighthouses stand is most convincing, because she managed to bring out the rough texture and hardness of the rocks through sheer skillful brushwork. Esther implied that painting relaxes her so, and that she finds contentment in creating shimmering artworks that will brighten up the dark spaces that she has an aversion to.