Artist Statement for Lord of the Reef

  



Amirasolo and Other Essays

Part 3. In my Book

Essay 36. ARTIST STATEMENT FOR LORD OF THE REEF

(Lalyn Buncab, curator of the Museum of the Dela Salle University, invited me to join an exhibit she's organizing. That was in early 2018. The show, MUKHA: PORTRAITS OF HISTORIES AND STORIES, had for its theme, portraits. Posted above is my piece for the show---the painting "Lord of the Reef". Below is my Artist Statement.)

ARTIST STATEMENT

This painting is a self-portrait---though not obviously so, because of the diving mask covering my face. If you look closely you'll discern that the eyes, eyebrows, and moustache of the diver are my eyes, eyebrows, and moustache. Also, the attire and diving gear were what I used to wear then. But even though this work is a self-portrait, the scene is just imaginary. I am just role-playing here. The painting is a portrayal of my fascination with the sea and my admiration for and awe of spear-fishermen who I considered before as sportsmen par excellence.

But why "Lord of the Reef"? The title is also a question. Who really rule the deep---its fiercer  denizens like the barracudas or sharks, or the intruding humans, whose greed and wanton fishing methods could only lead to the depletion of marine resources?

The persona I assumed in this painting is anti-heroic, so to speak. I said that I considered spear-fishermen as sportsmen par excellence. That was before. But no longer. I now see those who are into spear and deep-sea fishing for sports as no better than those who hunt for trophies in Africa. If they must kill fish, they should do it out of necessity---not for fun, not for thrills, and certainly not to earn bragging rights as champion sea hunters.

--- May 5, 2018

(Photo above: "Lord of the Reef"; 2007; acrylic on paper; 30 X 22 inches; Dr. Manolet and Mari Tan-Delfin collection)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Image
Amirasolo and Other Essays Part 2. My Trip Around the Art World                                                                                         Essay 16. MY FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME Wikipedia defines 15 minutes of fame as a short-lived media publicity or celebrity of an individual or phenomenon. It was derived from Andy Warhol's quote printed on the catalogue for an exhibition of his works at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in 1968. These were Warhol's exact words: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Photographer Nat Finkelstein however disputed the universal attribution of that "fifteen minutes" phrase to Warhol. This was what happened according to Finkelstein. In 1966, while he was preparing to take photos of Warhol for a...
Read more

Thumbelina Illustrations

Image
Amirasolo and Other Essays       Part 3. In my Book                                           Essay 41. THUMBELINA ILLUSTRATIONS Before I began doing the illustrations for a book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, Tahanan Books publisher Reni Roxas lent me several foreign picture books for me to peruse and to be inspired or even challenged by. One of those books was Wayne Anderson's "Thumbelina".  True enough, I was indeed so inspired by one of Anderson's illustrations that I patterned the composition of my Thumbelina illustration after it, with the difference that the human figure and the other elements in the picture I drew are realistic or un-stylized. Anderson's Illustrations, although cartoony, rest on a higher level of artistry than comics Illustrations and manga or animation and anime, all of which are but black and white line drawings colore...
Read more

The Art of Gore

Image
  Amirasolo and Other Essays Part 3. In my Book Essay 47. THE ART OF GORE Years ago, I saw on television a Filipino painter who uses real human skulls as his painting medium. I repeat, as painting medium, not as motif or subject matter. The painter broke the skull into several pieces and used each as some kind of chalk which he rubbed on big squarish sheets of abrasive paper (papel de liha) which served as his canvases. The abstract images he produced consisting of white striations and hatchings would have won the nod of art enthusiasts with modernist leanings or taste. But the gross nature of the medium I'm sure would repulse them instead. The fellow apparently relished demonstrating his technique as revealed by his brisk manner and his quite articulate reply to the interviewer's queries. He was obviously euphoric; he savored to the last delectable morsel his fifteen minutes of fame. Featured in the same program was another painter who uses his own blood as painting medium ins...
Read more