The Artist Brenda Subido Dacpano

June 6, 2022 Opinion

The art of Brenda Subido Dacpano will be on display at Hoka Brew, the Podium Boutique Hotel, and Marcos Highway in an exhibit, dubbed “Regeneration.”

The exhibit runs from June 5 to July 31, 2022, and features her Jeepney and Larong Pambata series, her homage to the iconic Pinoy public transportation as well as childhood games.

Brenda began her art through the mentorship of her father, Francisco, who annually gave summer workshops for his children, making sure all his children were equipped with the skillsets of painting, drawing, and stenography at their family home in Binalonan, Pangasinan.

It was with the mentorship of her father that her journey with the arts began and it has proved to tide her over difficult times in her life.

Twice over, her passion for the arts has saved her from the wrath of martial law and the anxiety of the pandemic, making it her safe place and saving grace.

Martial Law Days In her youth, she was active in student activities and movements as she was taking on a college course in Baguio city at the then Baguio Colleges Foundation [now University of the Cordilleras] taking up Architecture and in 1982, was arrested and detained for trumped-up charges of subversion.

A political detainee at 18 and jailed at Camp Bado Dangwa for nine months, her detention cell became a workshop of expression that tided her over during the days of uncertainty during the post-Martial Law days when freedom was taken by state forces.

Brenda with her inmates made a mural at Camp Bado Dangwa, cards, pendants, crafts, terra cotta pieces, and T-shirts that drew strong local and international support from the public.

On the eve of human rights day in December of the same year, all the detainees were released directly to President Ferdinand Marcos, who formally released the group of activists at the Mansion House in ceremonies of “pardon” in an attempt at propaganda.

In her freedom, Brenda did not go back to school but decided to go full-time into activism, handling student concerns and issues after her release.

Pandemic Projects
In the uncertain times of the pandemic, art once again became her refuge when she decided to paint every day. During the early months of the pandemic, Brenda daily, in watercolor or pen and ink, created mindful drawings to pass the time and keep herself busy during the lockdown.

Her outstanding work prompted her friends and mentors to urge her to join exhibitions online and that proved to be her market, with work selling as fast as she can create.

She has since joined multiple online art shows and embarked on her first solo exhibit at Luisa’s Café, along Session road in 2021.