Sym and the sum of all his isms

What is the fruit of all struggles? Well, either art or an entertaining soap opera. Or both.

That has been the life so far of Filipino-Canadian artist Sofronio Ylanan Mendoza, or more commonly known by the moniker “Sym,” as documented in the book SYM: The Power of Struggle co-written by Alfredo Roces and Sandie Gillis and published by The Crucible Workshop. 

The man had the humblest of beginnings. He was born in 1934 in the small rural town of Putat Bagong Bayan in Cebu. As a kid he was fascinated by comic-book characters such as Superman, Batman and The Phantom, drawing these Marvel and DC superheroes, dreaming someday of becoming an illustrator. His artistic skills took him on a pilgrimage of sorts: to Carcar, a town 40 kilometers south of Cebu, to study under maestro Martino Abellana; to Manila, to try his luck as an artist and where he eventually gets his big break (being able to take up fine arts at UST and UE, founding the Dimasalang group[s] of artists, winning awards and mounting exhibitions — the rest is art history); and to cities in Europe and North America, and eventually settling down in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Sym, as National Artist for Literature and STAR columnist F. Sionil Jose describes in the foreword, is someone who has “triumphed from travail and early sorrow” to become an artist who has created an audience for Philippine art in Canada. But SYM as a visionary is not through yet. Others are content in merely churning out formulaic artworks. You see the recent works of these “masters” and you know right away that they’re done. It’s all over but the eulogy. Sionil Jose says, “They don’t grow intellectually, aesthetically, they rot in a rut. Not Sym who has evolved slowly, but determinedly. His work today is in that inchoate margin between abstract and cubism and formalism… What is Sym trying to say?”

A lot more, says the artist himself. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.   

“I don’t think of what my place is in today’s art scene. As an artist I always think of how to project the new expression that is in my mind,” Sym explains. That’s why the title of his book is The Power of Struggle: he has struggled not only financially and physically, but he has also grappled with the all-consuming urge to create the new.

He shares, “There has always been the struggle with technique — which for me is a bridge and not the end. It should take you somewhere. Art should have originality as well as the high level of quality.”

““Snow Scene in Stanley Park,” 1982

This search has taken Sym to a whole rainbow of isms and movements — from Realism to Impressionism to Transparent Cubism and beyond. And a physical trip as well, as the book interestingly presents: from sleeping in a pigsty on a ship from Cebu bound for Manila with a princely sum of five pesos in his pocket (Sym’s artistic skills eventually took him to the captain’s posh cabin and a lavish luncheon, and start of even greater things) in 1962; to experiencing early struggle and success as an artist in Manila (creating a niche in the local art scene along with Dimasalang allies such as Ibarra de la Rosa, Romulo Galicano, among others) from the late Sixties to the Seventies; to the Sym family arriving as immigrants to Canada at the height of winter in 1981; and to SYM receiving the “Garbo ng Sugbo (Pride of Cebu)” Award in 2010 and triumphant homecoming shows at The Crucible Gallery and SM Art Center.

In between those eras are the anecdotes. The young Sym taking on whatever painting jobs that came his way — commercial signs, billboards, jeepney signs such as “Blumentritt,” “Quiapo” and “Maypajo.” He even sold his paintings in the art stalls of Mabini in Ermita. How Sym and Ibarra de la Rosa, as young artists who loved painting outdoors, were mistaken for arsonists and picked up by policemen and eventually soldiers in Vigan. 

“The people thought we were the ones who set fire to the market last night (laughs),” he recalls. “We were there sketching in the early morning and looked suspicious to them.”

“I’ve know Sym for many years,” says writer-painter Alfredo Roces, adding that they go way back in the Sixties when they exhibited at Sionil’s La Solidaridad gallery. “What attracts me to Sym as an artist is that he is always going against the current. So when it was the time of abstract art, he was doing figurative art. Now he’s doing a cubist thing when he could easily sit on his successful formula.” 

According to the prologue:

Sym paintings usually convey serenity and peace: a quiet pond, a mother and child, pots of flowers in a garden, a snow-carpeted street scene, a warm tinted interior with chair and various objects, a boat-decorated wharf, a sun-drenched countryside. You will not encounter terrifying scenes of blood and gore, or cadaverous scavengers on a mountain of garbage. No unblinking stare at the seamy side of life, no agonizing screams in the night, — for Sym. His personality does not dwell on such torments, despite the fact that Sym has personally experienced more than your average dose of poverty and pain. Both Sym the painter and Sym the man are not what you would good-naturedly label a “grumpy old man.” Sofronio Mendoza’s persona is your common man; one whose aesthetic vision is focused on the everyday life and on everyday things….

Sandie Gilles, who met Sym in Vancouver, says, “When I saw his paintings I was really impressed, even more so with his life story. To me the story had to be told.” 

“Hastings Street,” 1983

The art biography cum coffee-table book was printed in Canada. The two authors explore Sym’s fascinating life and masterful works. The book features 236 pieces of Sym’s paintings, studies and drawings, including those owned by collectors in the Philippines and Canada. SYM: The Power of Struggle was launched recently at Ayala Museum, and Sym’s mini-retrospective is on view until Dec. 5 at the SM Art Center.

The artist is happy with how Sym: The Power of Struggle turned out, but more chapters, according to Sym, are yet to be written.

“I look at it as a new beginning,” he says, adding that he is still experimenting and coming up new ways to capture his grand vision. “I don’t want to follow other artists. I tend to always go to the opposite direction.”

There will be hardships (a 76-year-old artist-teacher has other problems besides quirky collectors, easily baffled critics, or him no longer being in the pink of health, or it being too cold in Canada to paint outdoors). There will more toil. There will be more struggles.

No matter for Sym, since art is struggle’s more beautiful twin.

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SYM: The Power of Struggle is available at The Crucible Gallery, fourth floor, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. For information, call Chari Elinzano or Inas Amoyo at 635-6061.