CELSO PEPITO: POSITIVITY IN ART

By Marivir R. Montebon

Celso Duazo Pepito is known for crisp and clear lines in his works of art, and the bright color scheming. His masterpieces convey faith, love of country, and concern for the family, and in each rendition, there is a message of positivity and hope.

He has traveled extensively bringing his artistic craft with him to Singapore, Malaysia, Luxembourg and New York.  The latest project would be one in New York titled Cultural Confluence - IV, which will showcase the works of his wife Fe and artist Sonia Yrastorza at the Philippine Center in Manhattan in autumn this year, from September 24 to October 5.

Pepito is a graduate of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Cebu College in 1981.  He has mastered Cubism in his years of visual artistry, but he has gone beyond himself in promoting the well-being of people through his art.   Excerpts from OSM! interview.

1. Before your New York gig in September, what has been your latest work exhibit?

After joining the 3rd series of "Kita: The Philippine/Indonesia Art Exchange" in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia on June 30-July 7, 2012, I had two exhibits.  The first show is a Two Man Show with Jet Florendo dubbed as FLORENDO AND PEPITO at The Gallery of Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City. Our theme for this show is focus on our "Personal Perception" about life in the Philippines; the second show is a three-man show with Antonio Alcoseba and Darby Vincent Alcoseba at Galeria Immanuel in Makati City entitled: VISUAL INSIGHTS. In this show we opted to tackle on our journey as artists, moving with flow of our own evolution as painters- leading us to a more free sense of our expression

2.  What do we expect to see in your New York exhibit at the Consulate?

In the CULTURAL CONFLUENCE-6 in New York on September 24 to October 5, 2012,  we are trying to manifest the culture in us as Filipinos, visually present them unto the kind of viewers in America, and hopefully, provide them the opportunity to appreciate our culture as Filipinos through our arts.  We find it a privilege to immerse ourselves with the rich American art and culture that can possibly strengthen our perception as Filipino artists.

3. Who is your mentor in visual arts?

I will always attribute it to the late Martino Abellana who has given me the opportunity to learn and understand the basic tenets in painting. My shift to another style is a product of the encouragement of my friends: Wenceslao "Tito" Cuevas, Jr. and Edgar Mojares.

4. What makes a painter like you prolific and accepted by the community?

In the early years of my practice as a painter, my concentration was to develop my artistic skills. I didn't care that much whether the public will appreciate or accept my kind of art. After painting for thirteen years in the direction of my teacher, I have finally realized that I have to embark on my own style that can provide me with my own identity as a painter.

In 1994, i have started to develop my brand of Cubism. It is in this style that I have found the true freedom in expressing myself. My encounter with the teachings of Opus Dei in the same year has also provided me the opportunity to understand my role as a painter, gave me a deeper meaning in what I do and finally provided me with a greater purpose in life. Believing that as a painter, I can contribute much in the development of my community.

Art should not only be limited to creating beautiful things but it must go beyond it, looking forward to contribute more in nation building. It is perhaps in doing something for my community that the people have started to appreciate my art. With such kind of appreciation, I came to understand that I have the greater responsibility to do more in the spirit of helping my community into a more responsive one.

5. Is competition tough? How do you survive?

I have always considered my colleagues in the arts as inspiration rather than competitors. When I see good art, it keeps me going, it enables me to create more. Making an extra mile in what I do, simply manifesting my own aspirations as a person, or perhaps, trying to be different from the others, are ingredients that keep me alive in my artistic journey.

6. How can an artist survive using this God-given talent without being compromise to commercialism? Or be killed by commercialism?

Any artist who has the passion to do his thing can surely survive his art. But surviving is not the sole purpose of painting. To contribute for something different is even more noble than personal recognition. Expressing one's personal sentiments and observation makes him more unique, therefore very difficult to be followed or commercialized, this is so, because the product of his creativity is based on his own personal opinion.

7. What is your distinction as an artist from the rest of artists in Cebu?

Every artist has always its own distinction as long he does not let himself be totally influenced by other people. Expressing his own passion as a person is his gift of uniqueness. No other people can perfectly express himself than him. In my case, I have used my art to entice my viewers to understand my advocacy as a Filipino painter.  Foremost, I encourage them to appreciate the presence of God in the their lives.

As a Filipino, I wish to use my art to appeal to my brothers - to love our country, there is no other kind of people that can love our country that much, than us. Taking care of our very own family, strengthening our ties with them is simply our very own testament that indeed we care for our nation. Creating a stronger family will surely contribute to creating a strong and better community. Being positive in what we do can simply make us hopeful in celebrating the best meaning of our lives.

Putting these ideas in my paintings are what differs me from other artists not only in Cebu, but perhaps from other countries , as well.

8.  Plans, perspectives in the visual arts.

'Though the art scene in the Philippines is developing positively, there are areas in the country that needed support. In Cebu, for example, we lack the infrastructure to house the products of creativity of the Cebuano artists. So far, we only have few galleries that promotes our talents. We lack art museums that can facilitate the rapid growth of art awareness and appreciation in the Cebuano community. We are deprived of an Art Center that can truly house the artistry of the Cebuano painters.

Part of my vision is to help establish more venues that can promote the works of our local talents. To help facilitate this plan is to establish a foundation that can professionally run this kind of facilities and help seek more funding for this project. I am also trying to make a linkage among Asian artists to facilitate a better understanding and cooperation among our neighbors in Asia. We are also trying to extend our reach to Europe and America in the hope of giving us wider perspective in developing our art. Lately, we are also embarking on making art as part of the tourism industry in the country.



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The Poetic Justice of Simeon Dumdum Jr.

By Marivir R. Montebon

A colleague at the Cebu media once confided to me, 'We all love Simeon Dumdum. We scamper to edit his copy, because we don't just edit it, we just enjoy it.'

Before the readers, the editors are the first to love Simeon Dumdum, Jr. because they glide on his flawless composition of an article. Once endeared by the media, any writer is easily accepted by the reading public. And such of course, is Simeon Dumdum, a celebrated poet and respected judge in Cebu City where he served as Regional Trial Court Executive Judge.

He was born in the northern town of Balamban, Cebu on March 7, 1948, where he grew up and had his schooling in Catholic schools. He attended St. Francis Academy in high school and at St. Clement's College in Iloilo City, where he did a year of college. In Ireland, he went to University College in Galway.

For some twist of fate, Dumdum may have been a priest, but left the seminary to take up law and later became a respected lawyer and judge.

While practicing the legal craft, Dumdum has published five books - The Gift of Sleep (poems), Third World Opera (poems), Love in the Time of the Camera (essays), Selected Poems and New (poems), and My Pledge of Love Cannot be Broken (essays).

He won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for English poetry five times,and the Manila Critics Circle's National  Book Award three times.  In 2005, he received a medallion for writing the best decision in a criminal case, second level courts, in the Judicial Excellence Awards sponsored by the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

OSM! had the opportunity to interview him.

1. What is the greatest inspiration for you when you write your poems?

I wait for the moment when I 'see"--when I find new relationships, arrangements, meanings in the familiar world. It is not so much inspiration as discovery that prompts me to write a poem.

2. As a professional writer, does inspiration matter more than deadline? or is deadline an inspiration itself?

As regards the writing of poems, I set my own deadlines, but they are not strictly deadlines, more of an intention or mood induced purely for the purpose of opening the tap of creative juices within my subconscious.

3. And how is it that you became a Judge, it is a totally different world from literature and poetry?

I was a poet before I became a judge, and even now I still write poems. The law and literature are just aspects of the same life
and do not cancel each other out. In fact, they somehow reinforce each other.

4. Which self-expression are you happiest? As a Judge or Poet?

Being a judge has its own fulfillment. If I may use an analogy from the Gospels, as judge I am like Martha, as poet, like Mary.

5. How does one become a celebrated writer? It is not something to bring in so much food on the table, right? But what is it for,
its purpose, meaning?

One becomes a true human being first before one, if one has the inclination, becomes a writer. Whether one becomes a celebrated writer or not is for the future to decide. Art makes one rich, not materially but spiritually.

6. Advice to young aspiring poets and writers...how to better their craft.

To improve in one's craft, one must exercise it regularly. At the same time, one must read about it, and learn from others. It's the same in any other craft. Exercise and learn.

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BisayaBabe: A Neophyte Takes Her Art to Times Square

BY MARIVIR MONTEBON

She describes herself as an "Artist in Progress" and would rather be addressed as Bisayababe (read: bisaya babe). Bisaya is an ethnic group in the Visayas islands in the Philippines.

For someone who did not have any formal training or schooling in visual arts or painting, she has gone a long way to celebrate her foray into international art exhibition via the huge group art exhibition called ART TAKES TIMES SQUARE, touted as the most immense exhibition of arts in New York City for 2012.

Organized by a US-based company called Artists Wanted, the ART TAKES TIMES SQUARE competition will present artists from around the world an opportunity to display their works on a massive scale on the most iconic billboards of Times Square on June 18, 2012.

Bisai submitted nine pieces from her art oil and acrylic portfolios, for which online viewers “collected” (or voted for) her pieces and in reaching the requisite number of votes at 77.

She received a premium entry to the VIP Viewing site where her works, along with thousands of art by other global artists will be displayed on the massive LED billboard screens of Times Square.

The same competition will also see the “highest collected” artists awarded with $10,000 in cash as grand prize.

Delighted that her works are included in this massive group exhibition in Manhattan, Bisai is humbly gratified to be selected as one of the few Filipinos that perhaps managed to enter the challenging art contest. “ I know there are so many great artists vying for the top prize, just being here and getting my work exposed to a larger audience and a bigger venue is more than enough for me.”

A self-taught artist who started dabbling in arts at a young age, Bisai has always been fascinated with palettes, paints and paintbrushes. She started with caricatures and sketching then experimented with charcoal and progressed onto mediums like acrylic, oil and quite recently coffee.

In 2010, her piece, a part of the Kinamut ni Bisai series entitled “Ladies Club Arabia,” was recognized as one of the Top 5 artwork for the first Best of Asian Art (BOAA) competition in Singapore, besting over 125 other entries from all over Asia.

In one of the hotels she worked in UAE, Bisai in 2001 painted a wall mural of the hotel’s staff cafeteria as a token of her talent for being a part of the five star hotel’s opening team.

It was from that time on that Bisai Ya’s creative works were slowly exposed to media and public activities. Her works were often written about, reviewed and featured in local UAE publications.

A member of select art groups in Philippines, Bisai Ya shunned away from turning professional and instead became an art hobbyist where she is comfortable at being a Sunday painter (one who paints on weekends) being a busy home school mom to her sons Angelo and Miguel, and who are now also taking the creative inclination on themselves.

Bisai counts Vincent van Gogh, Freida Kahlo, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso as having influenced her painting style. Her vivid use of palettes and playful strokes are few indicators of the kind of art she paints.

Many of her private works are now hanged in many villas and homes in UAE and in the hands of top hoteliers who had shown interest in her brand of art.

Her passion for art has resulted to her setting up an online art gallery ‘Bisai Art Café” where emerging artists can exchange works, promote art exhibits, trade art and conduct online art auction to aid charity groups and individuals in their art related events and initiatives.

In May 2012, through her online gallery also organized the first ever Online Art Auction for the student alumnae of her high school alma mater Cebu’s Colegio dela Inmaculada Concepcion’s class 1986 to benefit the Breast Cancer Treatment care of one of the member.

Bisai Ya gathered a total of eight oil and acrylic pieces, which were auctioned off, to the highest bidder online. Bisai Ya’s piece will be joined by works of emerging Filipino women artists namely Glenda Demafeliz, Yolanda Cabuco. Joan Honoridez, Marivel Galang, Jo Balbarado, and Ella Hipolito in the ongoing auction that ends on June 5, 2012.

“I am yet to learn many things about painting and my humble knowledge is not enough and I am just as excited to paint each time. Competitions such as this give us avenues to launch our pieces and network with fellow artists. That's all I ever wanted and anything else above that are bonuses. I thank God for making me no different than what I am now. To God be the Glory,” Bisai gratefully says.

Check her entries at: www.facebook.com/BisaiArtCafe.