Rona Gamboa hears through her art

Seventeen-year-old Rosario Ma. Elena "Rona" Gamboa paints canvases that have the sure hand of one with years of experience. Truth is, her art teachers have continually pushed Rona to the limits of her prowess, saying that she has lots of energy and talent to spare.

Rona, a third year high school student at OB Montessori in Greenhills, is at the top of her class. And, just like any teenager a few months shy from their 18th birthday, she’s quite agog about how to celebrate it.

"My classmates always ask me who my escort will be," the teener admits. "I just want a party where I can invite all my friends to come."

Some may think Rona is just like any teenager. However, that is farthest from the truth. She is deaf in one ear and partially deaf in another. She was born six months premature, and her doctors gave up on her just as quickly.

"It’s not surprising that people are interested in Rona," says Rona’s mom Lissed Gamboa, Digitel vice president for GSM retail management and activation. "We’ve guested on all the television talk shows whenever they talked about survivors."

How can you not wonder how the young girl has managed to succeed despite the odds? Although she keeps to herself most of the time, a result of her hearing impairment, she has friends she meets up with most of the time and keeps in touch constantly by telephone.

When Rona was born, she was a small 1.8 pounds. Although she has heard and read stories on the Internet, Lissed says she still has to meet someone who was born smaller than her daughter.

"The doctors were quite frank as to what may happen to my daughter," Lissed recalls. "They said either she would die, become retarded, or grow to be deaf and blind."

Rona was in the hospital for five months before she got a clean bill of health. Lissed says she spent years trying to find a treatment to her daughter’s poor hearing. However, she was advised by experts not to take any premature options, since it could only jeopardize what little use she can have with her other ear.

She grew up in special schools for the hearing-impaired. That did not deter her from succeeding. Lissed says she decided on enrolling her daughter in a regular school so that she may learn to adequately interact with those who have normal hearing.

"I was told that if she learned sign language, she would never learn to speak," she admits. "Didn’t you notice how she looks at you steadily while you were talking to her? She was also reading your lips."

Rona is quite frank about her art. She considers her paintings to be an expression of her feelings.

"I copy what I see, what I like," she declares.

She took to painting quite naturally. She was four when Mom Lissed noticed that Rona would keep herself busy drawing. She decided to enroll her in art lessons in the United States to keep her daughter busy.

"I was surprised when her art teachers started talking positively about her work," she says. "When I saw her work, I realized that my daughter has real talent."

After moving from one art class to another, Rona now studies with artist Tony Nuñez. The class is an exclusive one, since it has only three students: Rona and her cousins.

This one-on-one approach has been positive for Rona’s art because it allows her to interact actively with her teacher and the other students in class.

"I look at what they do and I try to learn from what they’re doing," the girl admits. "I also listen to what they can tell me about my work."

Perhaps Rona’s subjects are simple, but her sure brushstrokes in a way resemble those of known Impressionist painters. A still life of fruits on a table echo Cezanne’s popular canvas, while another hark back to Monet’s garden with its lush water lilies and bridges.

Her favorite painting depicting two girls in a garden have brushstrokes that mirror an Alcuaz canvas they have at home.

Mom Lissed is quick to add that Rona did this particular canvas long before she acquired the Alcuaz.

"She’s never seen this painting before," Mom Lissed says. "We hanged this here only recently. She did her painting of girls before we thought of bringing this painting here."

She admits that most of the images she draws she copies from life – from what she sees during her travels around the world, from books she reads or television shows she watches.

Rona doesn’t keep track of her paintings, but Mom Lissed says her daughter must have already completed more than 50 paintings.

"But, we never manage to keep enough of her works for a show, because our relatives always take them home to hang in their homes. All the works she did in the States are now hanging in the homes of our relatives," says Lissed.

Rona isn’t bothered by the attention. Right now, she keeps a strict schedule on doing only her schoolwork on weekdays and her paintings on weekends.

Perhaps this is one reason why she looks forward to the summer. With no schoolwork to keep her, she can immerse herself fully in her painting.