How water can inspire, destroy, and enliven art

While listening to classical music and standing in high tide-induced flood waters at his home in Hagonoy town in the province of Bulacan, Jay Roque A. Marquez painted for three nights and produced two winning pieces in this year's Shell National Students Art Competition.

 

In an interview with GMA News Online, Jay said the first piece served to get his creative energies flowing and took only one night to finish. He had to flush out the emotions and images that filled his mind and a violet-hued montage covered the canvass by the time he was done. Jay named the first piece  “Insigma” and it became a finalist in the 46th Shell NSAC.

 

Next, Jay worked on the second, more challenging and deeply emotional piece, which took three nights. It was a portrait of his heart and he named it “Natalo Ako”.  “Nadala ako ng puso. Nadala ako ng damdamin ko,” he said.

“Puro po tragedy kasi yung nangyayari sa buhay ko,” Jay opened up. Painting, he said, is his way of adding color to his occasionally troubled life. “Nadadala po ako nung music, 'yung hagod ko po parang kapag napakinggan ko po 'yung music, 'yung kamay ko po sumusunod sa pagkunot ng nota,” he recalled of when he was painting "Natalo Ako" while drawing inspiration from the waters of high tide at his feet.

 

Jay, who studies Visual Communication at the Bulacan State University. is the sixth of nine siblings, one of whom has already passed on. The three elder sisters have married and left home to raise families of their own.

 

The remaining five live together at their Hagonoy home, but without their mother. Jay said his mother must work elsewhere—selling fish, meats and vegetables—so she could provide for their needs.

 

At the Ayala Museum, where the NSAC winners' and finalists' works were on display from September 10 to 22, Jay's “Natalo Ako” oil painting certainly stood out from among the rest. 

 

From a few feet away, it looks somewhat like a slightly-blurred photograph of a human heart partly submerged in reddish water, but a much closer look reveals the hundreds of brush strokes and interplay of hues of three layers of paint. Jay's other painting is on the same wall just some steps away. That one won P30,000.

 

“Natalo Ako” earned Jay first place, a gold medal, a plaque of recognition, a P60,000 cash prize, and the honor of being part of an intergenerational and illustrious line of top-notch Filipino artists.

 

Only artist in the family

 

To Alvin D. Florentino, second place winner in the NSAC Watercolor Category, flood waters, particularly those of Ondoy, brings back memories of when dozens of his artworks he had collected from since he was in grade school got water-damaged beyond recovery. He began rebuilding his collection after Ondoy.

 

Alvin, in an interview with GMA News Online, said he is the only one in his family and clan who is a visual artist. He said no one on his father's side or mother's side of the family is into art.

 

Well, he may have a recessive gene that suddenly got activated somehow and enabled him to produce the watercolor painting of fine details, "Leader of Disguise" which is his artful political commentary on fake political leaders.

 

 

The painting also presented Alvin his first opportunity to depict human skulls as tormentors. He exerted special effort to create the effect of light striking the corrupted human figure at precisely the right places. The finishing touches were the rust and blood that made the figure look like it was decomposing right before the viewer's very eyes.

 

Alvin studies at Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST).

 

The artist as canvass

 

Water is the obvious key element in the story depicted on Clint Rey P. Policarpio's "Basaan sa San Juan", which won first place in the Watercolor Category of the Shell NSAC.

 

Clint said the painting was fun to execute and is meant to make its viewer smile. Even he can't help smiling whenever he looks at it.