Bren Bataclan: Injecting smile through the arts

Bren Bataclan refused to be drowned in a sea of cold faces in Boston when he moved there a few years ago. Determined to turn the frowns upside down, Bren sneaked through the streets of Boston and used his colorful artworks to bribe the “snobby" Bostonians into smiling. “This painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often," an attached note on Bren’s artwork would read. He also launched a personal website where the lucky bribe-taker can post his/her feedback. Now four years after leaving his cheery acrylic critters in parks, benches, libraries, train stations, street corners, among others, Bren’s “Smile Project" has spread all around. His work has been featured in newspapers, magazines, on television and radio, and was also published into a 128-paged book by Gingko Press and would be out later this year. Last August, a documentary featuring his project won "Best Short Documentary" award at the Woods Hole Film Festival. He has been commissioned to do murals in schools, parks, hospitals, showrooms, and even designed a colorful patch for the “Spread the Bread" campaign in the US. “I always bring that Filipino warmth with me and our lack of sense of space. You know, Westerners usually have an issue with space but we Filipinos don’t," Bren revealed. Behind the smile Back in 1981, when his entire family flew to San Francisco, Bren’s new neighborhood in Daly City mirrored a mini-Manila: teeming with Filipino turo-turos, the familiar smiles of kababayans and even a Jollibee outlet. To Bren, it never seemed like he ever left his Makati home. Soon after, this UCLA summa cum laude graduate then moved to over-friendly Ohio to take up his master’s degree. In his graduate thesis, Bren made a computer animation titled, “Bahay Kubo" where he also tried to determine the Filipino design aesthetics. “Stefan Sagmeister asked, ‘Is it possible to touch somebody's heart through design?’ For me, the answer is ‘yes,’ because from here on out, my work is finally coming from the right sources: the heart, Filipino culture and a focused mission, widening the lens of design," he wrote in his research on the Filipino design aesthetics. With his impressive academic background, Bren then decided to stay in Massachusetts to teach computer animation and graphic design at the UMass, Amherst. It was there that he was lured by the dotcom boom in the late 90s, and found a job at a design-related think tank company in Boston. Things were going well with Bren until the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000 and he lost his once lucrative occupation almost overnight. Although Bren admitted that it was difficult at first, this naturally optimistic person always found a reason to smile. So instead of crawling into depression, he took a paintbrush and stroke colorful hues in his canvass. Drawing inspiration from the popular anime’ characters like Voltes V when he was still a kid in the Philippines, Bren created his ‘aliens’ with neon-colored skins and wide eyes. Spreading the Smile In September 2003, he decided to join other artists in an open exhibit in the Cambridge Artists’ Open Studios in Boston. It was there where something magical happened: 49 of his 56 colorful artworks were sold like hotcakes. But there was more to this surprising response that sparked Bren’s new found passion. “When Bostonians saw my artwork, they smiled a lot," he recalled. Seeing the effect his work had on the otherwise “snobby" Bostonians, Bren thought of a way to keep the smiles coming. In October 2003, he left 15 of his paintings in public places in Boston as a way of sharing with others the generosity of his patrons. “Not a lot of Bostonians go to art galleries. So, why not show it to them, “he said. Aside from taking off the price tag, Bren thought of tagging a small note on each of his paintings which would pass-forward smiles at random people and post feedbacks on his website. For the first 15 paintings, Bren literally hid behind the bushes to wait for the lucky recipients of his giveaways. After all, he still treated them as his “babies." Many were initially hesitant to get the artworks, thinking that it might be the works by some prank on television. But it wasn’t until one of the paintings got into the hands of someone from the Boston Globe that the city dwellers then realized what Bren was up to since “in Boston, everyone reads." Soon after, Bren’s eye-candy creations became the talk of the town. Word quickly spread about this once unemployed guy who, instead of being depressed, decided to infect other people with his optimism. And what was meant to be just a “one-time-thing" suddenly had a name: “The Boston Smile Project." Interest grew on his ‘project’ which not only caught the attention of several newspapers throughout Boston but the Smithsonian magazine as well that was then studying the science of smiling. “On this particular afternoon, Boston responds at first by skirting the painting as if it were a crime scene," described the Smithsonian article in August on an actual art bribery of Bataclan. “A woman pauses and hovers nearby…before also balking. But finally Bataclan cries, ‘She’s taking it!’ and exhales in relief as a young woman picks up the painting, tucks it into her bag and heads off, already beaming, " it went further. Since the overwhelming reaction from Bostonians, it suddenly dawned on Bren that he can’t just stop now.Smile Back Bren’s Smile Project is incomplete without telling the delightful tales of those who were fortunate to get one of his merry acrylic critters. There’s a story of a bride-to-be from Cambridge who dreamt of having her very own Bataclan, particularly the one depicting a candy-colored couple that she once saw hanging in a restaurant some three years ago. She and her fiancé were eyeing to get the priced portrait as a wedding gift since they were engaged in August 2006. The only problem was its $195 asking price. Then one fateful day in October of last year, as she was walking through the city for an appointment, she noticed a familiar gleeful beam on canvass. The painting she once ogled at the restaurant was now on a public bench. “We wanted to write to you and tell you yet another tale involving your painting, specifically the bride and groom painting," wrote Amy and Tom , the couple who serendipitously found the painting. They reported back to Bren that their friends became inspired by the painting that the whole theme of their upcoming wedding would be based on it. In fact, when Amy arrived at her wedding shower party, her friends did not only place a flag that replicated the “alien couple" but also made a cake that resembled the painting. “So we cut the cake and boy is your painting delicious. At the end of the night, all of our shower guests signed the banner as a keepsake for us. Very sweet," they said. Unsatisfied with the feedback he gained from Boston, Bren turns to his friends to make his bribing scheme global. So far, his paintings have gone to all continents of the world, including Antarctica. “Of course the penguins won’t appreciate it so she placed it inside the cruise ship for somebody else to pick up," Bren said referring to the penguin painting his friend Fran took with her to Antarctica. After sending his paintings to every country on the globe, Bren aims to “have an astronaut bring a painting with him/her into space." Ngiting Pinoy It was no surprise too that Bren took his project in his home country. Just last week, he left several paintings in Tagaytay and in Metro Manila while attending a friend’s wedding, and launched “Smile Philippines 2007." His “art-bribes" were seen hanging in front of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and at Rizal Park (Luneta). For Bren, no matter where he goes, there’s only one place his heart fondly calls home. “I will retire here in the Philippines," he revealed, “I love the way people are close to their family, laughing out loud, [and] the [bright] colors," he told GMANews.TV when interviewed while vacationing in Manila. Bren sees his artworks as an extension of his culture, which is proud of its people who can still muster a smile even at dire times. “Life here can be very challenging, it’s a survival," he said, “But people still find something to smile about." However, after bribing the world for smiles, what makes this Pinoy artist show his pearly whites? “I think since we, the Philippines, is still a new concept, and many non-Filipinos want to know who we are, we can set the path of what we should be," he said, “That’s what makes me smile." – Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV