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By Maria Espie Vidal, Special to The Manila
Times
Long before digital cameras were born, painters
were around to capture life’s best episodes on canvas.
Visual art has been an essential part of
mankind’s evolution ever since the beginning of time. Traces of
our fore fathers drawings on cave walls and rocks were found and
narrated to us their way of life. Hence, art grew simultaneously as
our culture developed replacing fingers with brushes and animal
blood with paint.
Unfortunately, with the continuous sinking of
our economy, art as westerners know it is not that applauded in our
society. With an aching stomach and unemployment, the only willing
class that would voluntarily spend an hour or two staring at a
wooden frame and interpret the product of a wild imagination is the
elites. This resulted in to painters selling their works abroad to
museums and collectors and also to a few local can-afford.
A non-government organization has taken
advantage of the situation for a valid purpose. Let’s just say it
changed art for art’s sake to art for another’s sake.
From private gallery to outreach
Before May ended on Saturday, the Cancer
Resource and Wellness Community or Carewell host a free art exhibit
and auction dubbed as Mga piling obra in Roxas Boulevard, Manila. It
displayed a collection of paintings by renowned artists from the
1970s to the present.
One of the Carewell’s founding members, Robert
Suntay, said that most of the proceeds from this project will be
handed to its members, Dicky and Ivette Herras who also spearheaded
the program.
Ivette has been struggling with breast cancer
and is undergoing multiple therapies for the past few years. Because
of this condition, the couple decided to sell their collection to
cope up with the patient’s treatments. “Dicky proposed to me
this project in order to raise money for her wife’s medication,”
said Suntay “We worked things out, gave him a space, and invited
people.”
With Dicky being a professional photographer and
Ivette as a daughter of famous painter Entes Magpusao, it is not
surprising for them to acquire such number of paintings. “[Our
collection consists of] most of the paintings are made by tatay
Entes and some are gifts from my clients back then. But most of the
displays here are hers since high school, mine was earlier sold,”
said the teary husband.
Aside from Magpusao, works of Greg Bolanos, Lito
Carating, Cris Cruz, N. Estrella, Vicente Larosa, Larry Lim, Jun
Martinez, Bobby Nuestro, Romulo Olazo, Bing Siochi, L. Yakit, Lino
Severino, national artist H.R. Ocampo, and Katha artists (an
organization of amateur painters) were presented.
An on the spot portrait sketching by mentioned
painters and products made by the members were also offered in the
event. “Sales from the artworks go to the Herrases while the
others go to our charity,” said Suntay “We are still to conduct
more fund-raising events for the growth of our community.”
An underground community
Nevertheless, visual art will continue to be an
“underground” community in our society. Free exhibits have been
going on for years yet remain unrecognized.
However, this problem does not only affect
visual arts but also other forms, an example would be the
independently produced films or indie films. Most of the indie film
directors are first recognized and awarded abroad before they
finally get the interest of the Filipinos.
This only proves that in a developing country
like ours, people will obviously tend to prioritize their vital
necessities than anything else. But perhaps we should look at the
glass half full instead of half empty.
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