KASINING ESSAYS by Arnaldo de Tondo

  Essay 21. MELANKOLIA By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol Pinggot Zulueta's solo show, "Melankolia", opened last January 16 at the Saturday Group Gallery at Shangri-la Plaza. It was a well attended affair. Gathered there were fellow artists and friends who, like me, are fans I'm sure of Zulueta. The exhibit showcased once again Zulueta's mastery of the pen and ink medium---a mastery very evident early in his career as editorial cartoonist. His cartoons of that period were visual witticisms at their best. I have said before that the era, which stretched from the waning years of the Marcos regime up to Cory Aquino's presidency, was the golden age of political cartooning in the Philippines. Who can dispute that when we saw the likes of Jose Tence Ruiz, Dengcoy Miel, Neil Doloricon, Dante Perez, Willy Aguino, Benjo Laygo, Benjamin Lontoc, Ludwig Ilio, Net Billones, Edwin Agawin, and of course, Pinggot Zulueta working at the same time and turning in daily works that a...

  Essay 20. RENATO HABULAN AND PAPELISMO By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol Last February 28, the biggest in the series of exhibitions to assert the significance of paper in artmaking opened at the Estancia Mall. Titled PAPELISMO BOCETO, the show, which was presented by Eskinita Art Gallery and part of the Ortigas Art Festival 2020, featured around 300 bocetos or studies for bigger works by 100 artists. RENATO HABULAN, the driving force behind Papelismo, invited me in late 2011 to join an art exhibit devoted solely to works on paper. This exhibit was Habulan's way of disabusing the art-loving public of the notion that works on paper are inferior to oil and acrylic paintings on canvas. The exhibit, titled PAPELISMO, opened on September 4, 2012 at the Crucible Gallery. It was the first in what would turn out to be a series of exhibits. Participating in that initial show aside from Habulan, were Alfredo Liongoren, Benjamin Torrado Cabrera, Pinggot Zulueta, and myself. The show gained much ...

  Essay 19. ARTLETA By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol The word artleta is a portmanteau. It is a blending of the word art and atleta (athlete). I coined that word to, ahem, describe myself - because aside from art and literature, I'm also into sports. But artleta will better describe Francisco 'Isko' de la Cruz. He'd done feats of physical prowess which I've never done and can never hope to do. Look at what he is wearing in the photo showing him with his artwork. That's one of the many uniforms he wore as participant in several marathons. But before taking up running, Isko was first a cyclist. He is my cycling and swimming buddy. But unlike me, he's not merely a recreational cyclist. He's hardcore. He belongs to a group of cyclists - supercyclists I call them -  who have biked from Monumento to Sorsogon several times already, which distance took them four days to traverse. Their group have already gone biking to Bagac, Bataan; Jalajala, Rizal; Lucban, Quezon; ...

  Essay 18. DEAN OF WATERCOLORISTS By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol In contrast to the two guys I wrote about previously, Jerry Dean was a very disciplined student. Unlike Jojo Garcia and Mon Villanueva, Jerry diligently attended his classes, passed his plates on time, and abhorred gallivanting and indulging in vices. He was one classmate I have not lost track of over the years. We are compadres. He is godfather to my younger son, Kai. We were also partners once in a t-shirt printing business. Jerry and I shared the same love for adventure outdoors. We snorkel, trek mountains, and camp out a lot. He had climbed Mt. Pulag which is very much higher than Mt. Makiling, the mountain I and my Tondo buddies climbed in 1981. The activity we've done together often was snorkeling. We've snorkeled in Marinduque, Zambales, and Cebu. He joined us for a vacation one summer in Oslob, Cebu, in 1994. Not one day passed then when we didn't go to  sea. We borrowed a small banca every morning ...

  Essay 17. LES ZAMBAL By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol Les Zambal was the name of a restaurant in Sta. Cruz, Zambales. Its specialty was mami, specifically sibut mami. What made sibot mami different from the mami served at Ma Mon Luk and Masuki are the ingredients used in it, which are a combination of star anise and other herbs. The owner of Les Zambal was Salvador 'Jun' Diaz, my closest buddy at the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts (USTCAFA). One time, I and Jun ate at Ma Mon Luk. He frowned after tasting the mami. He must have found it bland compared to the mami he used to serve in his restaurant. Which is true because the Ma Mon Luk mami recipe was much simpler, using only garlic and spring onions as its flavoring herbs. Cooking is one of Jun's enduring passion. He excelled at it. I always look forward to attending parties at their house because I know I'll get to savor again the dishes he himself cooked. Jun's other passion is art. I first met Jun at U...

Essay 16. STREAMS WITHOUT NYMPHS By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol BUTCH JACINTO studied Fine Arts at the University of the East School of Music and Fine Arts where he majored in Advertising. He wasn't a full-time student. Jacinto had to divide his time between working and studying, and had to take on a job as tourist guide for a shipping company to be able to support his studies. After leaving school he worked as Creative Visualizer for Philippine Refining Company (PRC). He worked in that capacity for thirteen years, after which he decided to transfer to the Sales Department of the same company. After his stint with PRC, Jacinto put up his own company together with some partners called CDEX System. He was the brain of CDEX. He did all the designs and performed the selling functions of the company. CDEX System specialized in fabricating advertising collaterals, like brochures, newspaper ads, websites, banners, posters, stationery, etc. Jacinto is tech savvy. He is proficient in computer g...

Essay 15. PORTRAITS OF WOMEN AS MOTHER NATURE By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol There are Filipino painters who didn't finish college but still went on to make indelible marks in the Philippine art scene. A notable example is Mauro Malang Santos---or simply, Malang. Malang's protege FRANKLIN CAÑA VALENCIA would be another. Frank officially entered the world of serious painting when he joined the Saturday Group in 2001. Before that, he was at the pinnacle of his career in advertising working as design director and later on department head for J. Romero and Associates.  Malang was one of  Vicente Manansala's proteges. Manansala was that master who passed on to his followers his fascination with cubism. These followers are ---in addition to Malang---Angelito Antonio, Hugo Yonzon, Oscar Zalameda, Romeo Gutierrez, Manny Baldemor, and Ang Kiukok, to name just the really famous ones. But their individual styles, even if from a common cubist wellspring diverged at some point, and have bec...