Six-woman exhibit opens June 14

June 11, 2017 Community Billboard

BAGUIO CITY – Six women of diverse backgrounds will show off their artistic skills in an exhibit entitled “In Her Point Of View” at the Baguio Country Club’s East Veranda starting June 14.
“In a way, this exhibit is their way of liberating their artistic sides as the nation celebrates Philippine Independence Day,” said Pasa-Kalye Art Project lead convener Maricar Docyogen of the women’s show which will run for about a month. Pasa-Kalye is the exhibit’s main presenter.
“These ladies are professionals in their own fields. They are expected to spend their time and effort in their work. So this exhibit is way of liberating the inner artist hiding inside them,” Docyogen added.
The exhibit will show how Alma Evita Mirador Maniago, Raquel Diokno, Cara Bruno, Jenny Marsha Agtani, Jo-Anne Bray Siadto, and Gladys Anne Laciste view the male dominated society they live, work, and love in.
“In Her Point of View” seeks to enlighten viewers the side of way these women look at the world and the people who have been instrumental in their quest for understanding and acceptance.
Alma Evita Mirador Maniago: Alev, as she is known, is a single mother who has been into Baguio’s art scene since studying in college in 2001. “I just love colors and art,” says the BS Commerce graduate, “It makes me feel royal to the extent that I feel like a queen whenever I hold my paint brushes.”
Her biggest source of inspiration comes from her son, who she dreams to have an exhibit of their own soon. She also says Rafael Maniago has greatly influenced her work.
Medium: Acrylic on canvass, and mixed media.
Raquel Diokno: Raquel considers herself to be an accidental artist after being asked to hold on to a sketchbook of her friend for a time. Unable to return the sketchbook on time, she started filling out with its pages with her doodles. When she finally met up with her friend once more, she was praised for her impressive skills with pen and paper. Artists from a “nearby” gallery were also impressed by her sketches that they invited her into the group, and eventually egged her to try oil and canvass.
“After staring at the blank canvass for a while, I picked up my brush and just went with the flow. The rest is history, as they say,” Raquel said of her beginnings in 2011.
Up to this day, her emotions dictate her pieces. “My emotions inspire me to decide which elements and colors would come out in my art,” she says, as she is still developing her own style.
Medium: oil, acrylic, charcoal, and pencil on canvass or paper.
Cara Bruno: The insecure artist, Cara, started out young in the art world. “It was my favorite subject in school (both elementary and high school),” said the proud mother of her son Timmy with fellow artist and husband Hermino Bruno. Art for Cara was a mere hobby until she found Tahong Bundok, the Baguio-based art group where Hermino belongs to. Despite joining at least five art shows, she still lacked the confidence to venture out on her own. “I would mostly help Hermie with his paintings, hardly painting on my own… because I was taking care of Timmy, my love. But now that he is turning three, he’s more independent… It is easier now to paint,” she adds.
“I want to paint more, Hermie helps me because he also wants me to, He can see it makes me happy when I get to work on something,” she stresses.
Medium: Oil, charcoal on canvass.
Jenny Marsha Agtani: “It is in painting that I learned how to express my extreme happiness and loneliness, love, success, failures,” teacher Jenny says of her art experience.
“I started drawing when I was 5 or 6 years old. I usually draw on walls of our small home and I didn’t know why I did that,” Jenny, who once taught art appreciation in college, says. She take the subject to show to her students the importance of art is in their lives. Most of her work uses old buttons, beads and old jewelry because her first job was as a fashion illustrator for a wedding gown shop for two years.
“I did bead work on wedding dresses which gave me an idea that maybe I can also sew these tiny objects on my canvass,” she adds. “As for my goals in life, I just want to have a happy life, to know my worth and drink coffee while working on my canvass on rainy Baguio afternoons,” Jenny, who now also teaches sociology in a “small school”, beams.
Medium: Oil, acrylic, oil pastels, colored pencils, mixed media.
Jo-Anne Bray Siadto: Self-taught painter Jo-Anne sees art as an escape from her main job as a nurse at the Cordillera Hospital of Divine Grace in La Trinidad, Benguet. “Although my subject matters varies from time to time, people have been my real obsession. I believe that every face has a story to tell, a vulnerability or vigor I yearn to capture.
Jo-Anne started with graphite, charcoal and acrylic in her art but gradually saw the potential of water color. “In 2014, I instantly fell in love with Aquarelle paints because it refuses to be tamed. Water color freely moves in every brushstroke, droplet and splash… much like our emotions, undaunted and beautiful.”
Medium: Watercolor, charcoal, oil on canvass.
Gladys Anne Laciste: “I wanted to pursue fine arts but my mother wanted me to follow in her accounting footsteps. As a result I didn’t go to college,” high school graduate and wife Gladys said of her journey in the arts.
She has held so plethora of jobs involving one art form or another ever since she was in high school which gave her some financial independence. “I have tried many different things: sew and sold tie-dye bags, crafted beaded jewelry, worked in digital scrapbooking, created props for the theater, face-painted for events. I am very interested in recycling and repurposing so most of my craft involve used materials,” Gladys adds of her formative years.
“I got my first real break when I posted hand-painted bottle candleholders, CD coasters and stones on Facebook. Maricar Docyogen, owner of Bookends, saw them and became interested. Soon I was sending my stuff to her shop for sale,” she adds.
“My husband, although has no interest in the arts, is very supportive. He asked me to try painting on canvass but I didn’t think I could do it,” Gladys says. But eventually hubby and Maricar convinced her to paint, “I got hooked!”
With at least two exhibits in her belt Gladys is slowly gaining the experience and confidence to pursue her art on her journey to a one woman show.
Medium: Mixed media, acrylic on canvass.
Docyogen stresses that “In Her Point Of View” is more about giving these ladies a chance for ladies to exhibit their work and give them the confidence to venture more into the arts in a world “dominated by male artists.”
“In Her Point Of View” runs for a month with the opening happening at 5 in the afternoon on June 14. Pasa-Kalye release / ABN